Brothers By Rage
by Theleafylord
Summary: Paranoid gods, suicidal half bloods and a morale line which gets harder and harder to see. Percy gets picked up by Annabeth, Luke and Thalia after two small changes, lead to huge ones.
1. Stasis

**Brothers by Rage**

**Stasis**

"And this age...shall end. "

Chiron stared, ashen faced, at the Oracle. People would have to be told. Gods would soon find out. Half gods would be culled.

"Not a second time. Not again. This world can only take so much. The collective mind of mankind can only take so many scars." he muttered, galloping towards the house where the camp councillor sat.

"Ah Chiron." Dionysus called from the porch. "Did the oracle actually sprout some more garbage or was the Apollo kid in another one of his attention fits?" He was absent-mindedly shuffling a deck of cards.

Chiron hurriedly told him the gist of the prophecy he had just heard.

"Mmmm..." said Dionysus, a scowl on his face, the cards falling from his hands. "So, a child of the big three will end or save the age of the gods. Almost makes you wonder which one is preferable."

He looked up at the sky. Thunder cackled. Clouds streaked across a sky which had been clear a few minutes ago. Dionysus didn't know what the oceans were currently like, but he was very sure it would be described as turbulent, seething and so forth. In reality, it could just as well be called angry. Even the shadows appeared unnaturally hostile.

"Yes...and it will happen as the child reaches a certain age. 16 I believe." said Chiron. "Obviously there will be a pact of some sort. An attempt to delay the child being born indefinitely."

Dionysus wearily looked at someone about to be broken. "And what about those about to turn 16? Tyrone I believe, a child of Hades in Los Angeles will be turning 15 in two months. Then there is Whitney, a daughter of Poseidon in Maine. She is 14 now...but for how long? Forever, if my paranoid brethren have their way."

"I am ordered to save them." said Chiron softly.

"You have been ordered by the great sky lord Zeus to look after his brats and the brats of his brats. If he wants to kill them then that is no business of yours." said Dionysus in a cold tone.

"He didn't argue when I fought against another father who tried to destroy his children." said Chiron.

Dionysus sighed. "You know, whenever I try to find morality in this world, it gets so complicated that I need several shots of Jagermeister just to keep up. On the one side, if the half bloods are killed for something they only might do, then that in itself seems undoubtedly evil. And yet, if a mistake is made, and the wrong half blood gets to make this choice, dooming the gods...well the alternative to gods are titans. And everything that person ever cared about will be destroyed. It could easily be argued that most half bloods, and indeed most humans, would prefer their own death to that."

"Evil be thou my good." muttered Chiron.

"Indeed...peace through the blood of innocents. Destruction facing the immortals...they will not act completely rational." continued Mr.D

"We do what we can...and we can only pray that'll be enough." answered Chiron. "There is a war coming and we will fight it."

-BREAK-

"My Brothers...have we all been good? Kept it locked up?" breathed Hades, glancing around the room. He swept his hand to his glass of Ambrosia, knocking some of it to the floor, before disposing of the rest like a shot.

"And you wonder why we keep you in the universal basement." commented Zeus dryly.

"Yes...because it clearly isn't due to my loyalty, which for some reason is always in suspect despite me never having betrayed anyone. Or my honesty...my charm...dear lord, I'm not making all of you all feel inadequate am I?"

"Clearly you're still starved for attention. I know dead men make for terribly company but I thought in your case it might be different." replied Zeus, gently drinking his own ambrosia.

Hades smirked. "Yes yes. Make it known that we despise each other. I'm sure it won't be hard to convince the forces of this...16 year old I'm sincere when I attempt to jump ship."

Zeus began to stand up but Poseidon irritably waved him down. "He's messing with you. You always were far too easy to mess with. "

"Well, most gods probably aren't often exposed to sarcasm or all the other delightful traits of those people who feel that death is the worst thing that can happen to them." said Hades, sitting in his throne of darkness. There was a strong contrast between his throne and that of Zeus, who tried to capture the light and gold which would be appropriate to the lord of the sky.

The contrast was something like a god and his devil.

"Indeed. Of course, most gods know there's a time and a place...Olympus has never been the place, nor has there ever been a worse time. We are immortal. My children do not threaten us. This age was supposed to be the perfect one...an eternal cycle of the children killing the parents ended by us...and for the first time, we are told we are threatened by our own..."

"Might I point out that the reason Athena, Apollo and the rest have not decided to overthrow and kill us may be due to the fact that we haven't gone the usual route of trying to destroy the merely because they could destroy us? Killing our offspring, even half bloods...well, that might make them reconsider." said Poseidon, sitting on his own throne of wood.

"From what some of the titanly remains in my basement told me, Kronos went insane near the end. The paranoia of something which cannot be killed is something which we cannot face, nor become." said Hades softly. "Imagine, bleeding, being ripped apart and dying again and again and again for all eternity. That is what we damned our father to. He's always plotting. Always thinking. I'm starting to fear it's his very hate which fuels all the chaos humanity has experienced."

The brothers were silent for a while.

"Very well." said Zeus briskly. "We must deal with the threat without antagonising the half bloods. If worst comes to worst, we can probably remove one or two of them. It is a shame how monsters track them sometimes..." He sighed.

"They might suspect..." began Poseidon only to be cut off by Hades.

"They won't. I'm already the archetypical villain hellbent on killing all heroes remember? They will side against me, not against the gods as the whole."

"And what of your own children?" asked Poseidon.

"I'll speak to Apollo. Varied medical problems, maybe you can take one or two out with one of your little beasts if they go to near the ocean." answered Hades.

"And the most important thing...no new children." said Zeus. "It is immoral do condemn them to a live with death before the age of sixteen."

Hades glared at the two of them. "Acceptable. But I demand an oath, from the both of you. Sworn on the river Styx. It should actually make it easier to explain all the monsters charging the kids...although it probably won't deter you two much."

"Do you think we such slaves to our desires that we would risk damning all for a single night of-"

Hades waved him off. "Yes. Yes I do. And believe me...I'll be watching the both of you."

-BREAK-

I feel like a sort of bloody mist.

I never truly experienced anything bad before this punishment. During my fight with my father, he managed to actually damage my body. I was wounded, but my body healed. My mind stayed. I could smile at him and dump his worthless corpse in the ocean. Suitably desecrated of course. And cut into a few million pieces.

Ah...corpse. What I wouldn't give to be one of those. I'm sure dad would too.

I once almost reassembled an entire arm. Hades came and scattered the pieces as quickly as he could.

I will kill them all. I will kill or destroy anything which can remember them or give any hints that they ever existed. To a certain extent...

You see, you can't kill a god. But after thousands of years down here, in the very heart of all evil...

I may have found something damn close.

"Well...another year has come to pass." said the Lord Zeus, alone with the only two beings that rivalled him in power. And who weren't chopped into millions of tiny bits or otherwise imprisoned.

"Lovely...we should commemorate this year...maybe call it the year of utter stupidity...or maybe the year of banging a television talk show host despite the fact that the offspring might end all life...too long? How about -

"Hades, enough." sighed Zeus. "How long have you known about Thalia?"

"Oh you know." answered Hades. "Long enough to cancel all my long term investments. Write a will. Write that book I've always had in me." He sighed. "She's what? Ten? Good age. Hope your conscience isn't bothered by the fact that you made her knowing full well what he life expectancy would be."

"Hades, be calm. We all make mistakes. Surely there is some other option here...we might be able to avert the problem through none violent means." said Poseidon.

Hades smiled. "Where was all this delightful protest when we were doing the first round of culling? Does panic have to be fresh in order for it to justify the killing? Has eternal doom just stopped being terrifying? I've already sent several of my pets after her. She won't survive."

"You've left nothing to chance?" asked Zeus.

"Not sporting enough for you? It doesn't matter...I plan to spend the next few millennia free of eternal agony thank you. She is..." he paused and his eyes unfocused. "Either extremely talented or extremely lucky. It seems she has escaped."

"As heartening as that might be to you, it's actually very bad for us." said Poseidon, looking at Zeus. "This talent...she seems to be the type to have a prophecy about her."

"Not just her..." said Hades softly. "Apparently she had help...a certain Luke...he's only a bit older...yet such skill...a child of Hermes I see...we'll have to kill them both."

"What?" said Zeus suddenly. "He cannot be the child of the prophecy. There is no reason to-

"He has a crush on her. Or some affection. Feelings at the very least. If we kill her, he might yet turn against us. Figure out what we've been up to. A child like that in the hands of our enemies..." said Hades.

"It seems you've become paranoid..." commented Poseidon softly.

"Really? Perhaps the paranoia is good for something, eh Percy?" asked Hades mockingly.

"You too?" asked Zeus, who started looking a lot less guilty.

"Quite." answered Poseidon. "He's about eight. There will be NO killing him until he is at least twelve."

Hades laughed like a madman. "We would make father proud...all this plotting and morality in killing _your _children. Very well. I shall wait until he is...shall we compromise? Ten."

An argument broke out, with Zeus remaining silent while the other two fumed and ranted. Finally, Zeus broke the silence.

"Hades, what you said about us acting like our father...rings true. If we continue acting like him, our own children will eventually start doubting us. And we will fall. We all know the nature of prophecies. They are inevitable. All our attempts at delaying them may merely be dust in the wind. So...our children... we do not have to kill them outright...we only have to ensure that they never become sixteen." said Zeus.

"Stasis." asked Hades. "I suppose you could turn Thalia into a tree or something. And Percy into a, I don't know. Possibly a reef?"

"But we have to be subtle. We have to ensure that the other demigods believe it is necessary." said Poseidon. "As if turning her into a tree is saving her from monsters."

Zeus sighed. "Hades, keep attacking her. Make the attacks progressively worse...and if she nears camp half blood...ensure she will not make it to the border."

"And Percy?" Hades asked.

"Wait until he's ten...then the same." suggested Zeus.

"The same thing happening to two heroes, both who are known to be a threat to us?" responded Poseidon. "It'll be too transparent. Make him join up with Thalia and Luke. Then we'll take care of all three of them together."

"You know, maybe I should just pop down into Tartarus and figure out how dad would have handled this situation...maybe he'll have a fresh take on the whole patricide thing...no? Oh well. Just offering."

-BREAK-

I have failed too many times. Too many times has my body been reduced to this state. Again. And again and again. Every time I have tried the same basic strategy and each time it has failed.

But today...something which cannot be forgiven had happened. My father, Oranos, had neared completion. And the gods had realized nothing. There will be a new war between the gods and the titans and I will have no part in it.

I am a known master of manipulation, a liar and a betrayer. But now I can no longer keep a consciousness long enough to think in multi word sentences. I only desire one thing.

Vengeance.

With or without my brothers and sisters, I shall stand upon Olympus, and make them all pay.

**Author's notes:**

**Sup. It's been about four years since I actively wrote PJO fanfics, and in all honesty I had lost all hope in fanfiction in general. Then I read "Dark Respite", quite possibly the best fic on this site, and here we are.**

**Some notes before you begin reading the entire thing (if you intend to):**

**I have not read any of the heroes of Olympus books, nor will I.**

**This will contain elements from the first four books, but not the fifth, seeing as Percy won't be swimming in the Deus Ex Machina river nor will everything be so god damn easy.**

**The ages of the four main characters had been intentionally changed (Thalia, Annabeth, Luke and Percy.) And they will be "ooc." Of course the very different lives they've been leading my have influenced their personalities somewhat, but from my other stories, I've learned that people don't buy that. **

**Lastly, this will be a bit darker than the series, (the Labyrinth will contain far worse things than a thousand regenerating skulls, people will actually lose limbs, as you might expect from all the swordplay and the gods will be a lot less comic modernisations and a lot more plotting deities who want to live forever.)**

**All that being said, enjoy.**

Next chapter: Hunted


	2. Hunted

Brother by Rage

Hunted

There were four half gods sitting in a train, heading west. That's basically two whole gods. Only somehow, it isn't. Like logic, adding stops working when applied to the near-metaphysical.

One of them was tall, tan and handsome. His muscles shown and most of the girls( and to his annoyance, some of the guys as well) sent him approving glances occasionally. He didn't care. He had whole new types of apathy concerning what other people thought of him. Although some might find it weird, the way he was staring intently at the green crystal in his hand and muttering.

The sword which was slung over his legs also should have caused comment. However, whenever someone would look at it in surprise or fear he would snap his fingers, and they would wonder why they were surprised at the shopping bags he had with him.

There were two girls with him. One was dressed in ratty clothes, clearly designed to say "stay away". Or rather, "fuck off and die fag". Obviously not someone who enjoyed many people's company. However, you had to be paying attention to see the message she was sending. She truly wanted to be left alone. She kept looking around, worriedly, and sniffing as if something bothered her.

The other girl was about nine. She was dressed in disturbingly adult clothes with spots which most people would convince themselves wasn't blood. If you stepped back in horror you would see the other two also looked like they went through a bloody war but they hid it better. Social services would probably like a word or several with them. Possibly also some forms, maybe some court orders and legal new families. But no one could think around them. No one could think at all while looking at them.

There was a general feeling that they should be left alone.

And most people tended to obey that feeling, because every few seconds, they knew there weren't really any shopping bags.

"There's a half blood close by." said Luke finally looking away from the crystal and staring out of the train window, like he half expected to see a kid fighting demons outside.

"How powerful?" asked Thalia. "If he or she is luring the things like Annabeth, we go get him. Otherwise, we should just move on."

Luke stared at the crystal. "Quite powerful." he whistled. "Last time it was like this...was when I used it to find you in that maze."

Annabeth stared at the shining crystal. "How does it work?"

Luke grinned. "Remember when you saved us from that Cyclops? They can't really sense half bloods...so he made this to help him hunt. I don't really understand the technical side, but we have a scent right? That's how the monsters find us. For monsters to be able to smell this scent, something must be in the air. Some kind of godliness I guess. When this crystal is exposed to the scent, it resonates with it, causing the glow. I've managed to get it to ignore us so...that leaves us with only one possibility."

Both Thalia and Annabeth shivered at the mention of the Cyclops. Luke however, always looked forward. Their past was filled with terrors, but Luke was the only one who could really leave them there.

"So...either another half blood coincidently got on the same train as us, or Luke made a mistake." mused Thalia. "K, we can stop looking."

"So...does he or she even need saving?" asked Annabeth. "If the half blood still has a mom or dad we can't really take just..."

"Yeah...kidnapping is bad." agreed Luke. "Saving from monsters however...we might actually get bonus karma points. Maybe enough to stop the whole lives of being constantly under attack from monsters thing."

Thalia sniffed again. "Umm guys...I smell something. Something bad."

Luke tried smelling the air. "All I get is that guy." he said, pointing to man who was best friends with his own body odour or just the enemy of hygiene.

"How close is the other half blood?" asked Annabeth, taking out her knife. Some people paused, and then thought it was adorable that the little girl was playing with her doll on the train.

Not terrifying at all.

"He should be uh, in the other compartment." said Luke, reaching for his sword. "Four half bloods. It's probably what most monsters refer to us a banquet."

"At the next stop...the monster is waiting for us at the next stop..." breathed Thalia, taking out her spear.

All three of them readied their assorted weapons.

Several people wondered why they all looked so serious about their shopping and dolls.

"The other half blood should be safe." said Luke. "The three of us must be the biggest target ever." He tried to be reassuring.

The train gently slid into a halt. "Go time." said Thalia with a grin.

"Isn't it always?" asked Luke half sadly.

xxx

I always wondered whether or not I should make a list of the things I want to do before I die. I'm only ten, but still, I'm pretty sure eleven ain't gonna happen.

Still, the list, updated after this delightful term of school :

Blow up my school. Check check.

Kill(or explode) my teacher. Triple check.

Ride on a whale to escape from a demonic ice cream man. Check

Kiss a girl

Well, that doesn't really leave much. And now my mom has a new boyfriend who's buddy is coming to pick me up from the trains. I'm ten. I really don't need a bodyguard.

Oh wait...actually I do. I need several. With laser beams, crucifixes and other monster killing weapons.

Well, here's my stop. I should probably think up some stories. Maybe terrorists. Or the whale was evil. I could blame it on the recession. Possibly global warming.

"Hello Percy." said a tall man in a bright red suit.

"Um...are you Gabe's friend?" I asked, hoping to hell I won't ever have to be seen in public with this guy. He had a clean shaven dome, and a golden earring in his left ear.

"Yep. You can call me Manny. " he paused, to let it sink in, as if somehow I should become shocked at how epic his name is and start running.

"Okay Manny. So...are we gonna stop to eat first?" I asked. "Or just go directly home?"

"Maybe we should go into a dark alley. Or a basement." mused Manny. I must have looked confused because he immediately said "Don't worry Percy. I am an adult."

"I've had bad luck with them lately." I responded, not really liking how hungry this guy looked.

He paused for a moment. "Did they seem...positively monstrous?" he asked, grinning sickly at me and leading me into a surprisingly secluded alley.

"No...pretty regular actually." I said. "Well regular for me anyway. Apparently other people almost get murdered less often."

He paused for a moment. "Yep, I would put you down for a child of Ares but you're built wrong. Anyway Percy, I've murdered your mom, gutted that fool Gabe and in general, I'm about to spend the next few minutes killing you with poison and spikes. In short, this just isn't your day."

I didn't really register what he said at first. At the part where my mom was killed, I sorta blacked out. Not fully, I could still hear and see but I physically couldn't respond to anything, not the running away which should have occurred when he appeared to be a giant lion with wings and a scorpion tail, not the dodging which I should have attempted when the tail hit me in the face...

"You, you're lying!" I yelled, falling backwards to the ground.

"Oh dear, stupid Percy. Do you see this spike?" asked Manny, and a lethal black spike shot out of his arm and went through the wall next to me. Okay...he's both a lion and a man...at the same time.

It appears I don't have a mom or twenty twenty vision.

"What...what are you?" I asked, almost...well, let's just say I was very scared and very ten okay?

"A monster. A Manticore to be precise. I was giving you hints. Usually, I feel a bit guilty when I kill innocents, but I honestly can't see how anyone will miss you. Well, pray to your father. You have, oh five seconds."

"I guess he's coming with us." said a tall surfer guy who was standing behind the manticore.

"Yeah..." said a punkish girl, with a long spear. The manticore turned and laughed at them.

"Do you seriously think you stand a chance against me GURGH!" Woah. Out of nowhere a blonde girl appeared and stuck a knife right through his...chest? Paw? Arm? The visuals are getting really confusing.

As Manny turned to swat the blonde girl away, the Punkish girl pretty much impaled it's left arm. He sent spikes out, all of which were cut in half by the surfer guy, who was extremely fast.

Within a few more seconds,the monster was dead. The three of them turned to look at me.

"Well, guess we're you're family now." said the surfer guy awkwardly.

"Luke!" said the punk girl angrily, punching his shoulder. "Look...we're really sorry about your mom...but you won't be safe unless you come with us."

I would like to say that I sucked it up and went with them.

But although that probably makes me more manly, it also makes me a lot less human.

To be honest, I broke down and started crying for...I don't know. Eventually the tall guy apologised, picked me up and ran away with me.

That was when I met my family for the first time. For two years, it was just us against the world.

xxx

Running. Breathing. Dying.

The first two verbs are fine for a group of friends. The third really isn't something you want to be doing.

I spend most of my time with the three of them doing the first, and quite a lot of time doing the third. It helped me...forget...or cope with the whole, losing my mom thing. Only when I wasn't tired, when I wasn't basically passing out when I went to sleep, did I still think of her.

I think it was partly that which drove me to push myself past the brink of exhaustion each day.

We had been together for two years now, getting into no end of messes and basically mostly running. Sometimes we could stay in places for a long time, other times we could barely stay an hour.

We usually met lone monsters, or groups of them but we could win. They had given me a sword, and although it felt weird, I was quite good with it. Nowhere near as good as Luke, but he kept training himself and me the whole time.

Thalia, who was the tallish punk girl, fought with a spear and a really terrifying shield. It had an imprint of the face of Medusa, and it scared even monsters away. For some reason, I was less affected by it than the other were. She actually looked like she could've been pretty once...Medusa, not Thalia.

Then there was the blonde girl, Annabeth. She wasn't very strong(but neither was I) but she was sneaky and cunning as hell. Usually Luke and Thalia would distract the monsters while she went in invisible and finished them.

I didn't really have a goal in the group, until I was eleven. After a year of training and exercising, I was almost strong enough to kill a monster on my own. Mostly I just held my own until Luke or Thalia could help me.

Anyway, we were being chased by giants and they were physically overwhelming. Luke tried to block one of their strikes and was sent back several meters into a river.

"He's out!" yelled Thalia, taking her spear and running towards the guy who downed Luke. A huge swing of it's club, which Thalia jumped over and Thalia stuck her spear into it. The other giants two laughed at her.

Lightning hit one of them. They stopped laughing, but didn't look too worried either. Thalia went pale. She wasn't worried about herself, she was worried about what would happen to Annabeth if she tried something heroic.

I was useless.

There was nothing I could do.

Except...the river seemed to be calling to me...I didn't get it, but I pretended to go check on Luke. Maybe it was just fear that made me run away. Maybe I just wanted to be with my best friend when I died.

He laughed when he saw me waddling in, but his breathing was shallow.

"Guess this is it huh..." he said, and I saw his one leg was...broken or fucked. Or broken and fucked.

In my haste I fell into the water and then I felt...unbelievable. It was like I was never meant to walk on the ground. My muscles were healed, I was filled with so much energy. And I was stronger. Far stronger than I've ever been before. Thalia suddenly came flying past me.

"Didn't work..." she said angrily, standing up in the water.

One of the giants suddenly picked nothing up. Rephrase: It picked the invisible Annabeth up and took her baseball cap off. It laughed even as she stabbed it repeatedly in the arm.

And that's when the second part hit me. Rage. I was no longer merely stronger. I was in fucking quad damage mode. I wasn't even human any more. The water seemed to rage with me, swirling around me in a typhoon.

It would do as I said.

"Percy..." whispered Luke, staring at me wide eyed, finally getting who my immortal parent was.

I called the water up, and created a huge wall of it, and threw it at the giants. For the first time, they were knocked down. I jumped, my body still on fire, and slashed the first giant to death with my sword. The second stared, and Annabeth backed off. Apparently I was way scarier than the giants. One jump, one slash. That left the last one, who started running. I picked up Thalia's spear and made the best shot I ever made with it. And the only shot which wasn't also a danger to myself and all my allies. I suck with ranged weapons.

Earthshaker. Stormbringer. He who should not be messed with when he is in water.

I'm the son of Poseidon.

"Hey, free fish." said Luke, looking at the dry river bed and picking some up.

xxx

That was the first time we were almost overwhelmed. The second, was a lot more embarrassing.

See, physically I was the strongest member of the group. Ever checked out all those statues of the gods? After you've stopped laughing at their genitalia, you might have seen that they depicted them as they were: Zeus, the valiant leader, Hades, the sneaky backstabber, Poseidon, the ripped rebel. My dad hides this form mostly, but there's a reason he gets along so well with Ares. They both are incredibly physical warriors, relying less on the god powers and more on their godlike strength. I'll probably get along quite well with the Ares kids at this camp Thalia keeps talking about.

However, Luke and Thalia both had so much more skill than me, and the difference in strength was so small, that they could beat me any time. Not near water, but that was about it. Annabeth I could beat if she made more than two mistakes, but her technique was generally flawless.

But I've been dodging the point. The point is, we have limits. And one day, we met them.

We had already gotten away from some dracaena and some hellhounds. And now, bronze mechanical bulls. Car sized, roaming, mechanical bulls. I do not know out of which Steampunk universe Hephaestus has escaped, or why he hates us, but I am painfully aware that this won't end well and that he should be put back inside it.

"We haven't done anything to offend Hephaestus!" yelled Luke, taking on two bulls at once. "Why would they attack us?"

"They're not official models!" answered Annabeth. "They don't carry his mark! They must be rejects or something!"

Brilliant plan Annabeth. Insult the machines. That really helps what going to happen next. Forget cow tipping, we could probably caber toss regular bulls if we really wanted to. But these bulls were a lot tougher and a lot more stab resistant. Or pretty much stab immune, seeing as I shoved my sword all the way into one of them and they just ignored it and kept running.

"Well, hand to horn combat." I sighed, grabbing the bull by the horns. The bull responded by throwing me about 15 feet into the air. I came down quite hard, my middle hitting the ridged back of the golden bull.

I don't know what made the cracking sound, but judging from the amount of pain I'm in, it was important. Or needy. Annabeth then came out of nowhere and decapitated the bull who was trying to gore me. Oh goody...the bull actually had anti-decapitation fail-safe's and just kept on coming, headless but apparently not really bothered by it. I managed to kick it away, but judging from the effect on my leg I couldn't do it twice. Ever had a dead leg? Well, mine was still alive and very angry about it. I think the bulls might actually have been projecting a shock field.

Thalia was the only one who was really winning against the bulls, as they seemed to be conducting electricity ver-r-r-y-y-y nicely. Luke was holding his own until one's horn shot of and grazed his arm, which went "crack!".

"Dammit...they have modifications! Watch out!" he yelled, as one charged Thalia from the side. She dealt with it while Luke really should have been watching his back. We all stared in horror, as super reality slowmo allowed us all to see the bull get ready to gore Luke into very good looking mush.

That was when several dozen arrows hit the thing, the final one causing it to explode. Luke looked around confusedly. The rest of the bulls were also picked off with considerable (and quite embarrassing for us) ease.

"The hunters..." whispered Thalia.

"They're not going to kill us then." mused Luke, "Good enough. Heck, maybe they have ambrosia or something. Neither me or Percy is in very good shape at the moment."

The hunters, who I had to crane my head at a really awkward angle to see, came into view. There was one really tall one, who I guess was the leader, and a shorter one with Auburn hair. The rest sort of hung back.

"Lady Artemis." said Annabeth, bowing. Luke and Thalia did the same. I sort of rolled around in a deferential way. So...there I was, bleeding and unable to stand upon seeing a goddess for the first time. The small one's eyes laughed at me.

"You have managed to get yourself in a very dangerous situation." said the tall one. "The boys should definitely start making their way towards camp half blood. While a wonderful future might await the girls if they so chose."

Hello, I'm Percy Jackson, the guy not excluding you from the possibility of a wonderful future at your choosing. Of course, I didn't say this aloud. I had more common sense back then. And a lot less rage.

"What do you mean?" asked Thalia, eyes narrowing, although from how pale Annabeth looked, I guess her mind was merrily whirring.

"You are welcomed to come speak to me out our camp site. The boys will have to stay outside it however." said the small one.

"What?" said Thalia, in a tone you probably shouldn't use with a goddess. "They're wounded! They'll die if we leave them out here! Are you seriously going to act like they aren't even there? Again!"

Luke coughed. "We'll probably be fine for a while." He started strapping his broken arm up with some bandages we stole a while back. "Seriously." He suddenly looked away from them. "If you want to go, go."

Thalia looked pained. Then angry. Then fucking furious. "I'm not abandoning you guys! You guys would never do a thing like that! And neither will I!"

"Well..." said Luke softly, sitting down. "We don't really have the choice do we? So...I don't really know what I would have done." He paused again, and I could see the next part pained him. "We won't hold it against you or anything." Thalia slapped him through the face.

"Luke...shut up. You guys are my family. I'm not scared of anything. I don't need immortality." said Thalia, leaving me in the delightful position of not knowing what the fuck was going on.

Annabeth also looked very pale and scared. But also like there was something she kind of wanted to do but she would feel guilty forever if she did it and she felt guilty for even wanting to do it. Is there a word for that? God, I hope not.

"We've made you this offer before...we'll make it again." said Artemis. "You are still, and will always be more than welcome to join the hunt."

"You'd still make that offer, knowing they'd die if we take it?" asked Thalia, once again with more disgust in her voice than you should use when talking to a god.

"They are foolish..." said the tall one. "They fight like brutes, always attempting to overpower their enemies. They will not last long in any case."

Thalia was about to make herself a very small immortal enemy, when Luke suddenly grabbed her arm.

"Lady Artemis, me and Percy apologise for viewing your hunt. We are also very thankful to you for saving us from the monsters."

"They just happened to show up after all the men were wounded..." muttered Thalia. "Coincidence, or was it something far more obvious?" Luke gave her a look, and she sort of quieted down. Not for her sake, but for me and Luke's. I got the feeling the two of us were far more likely to be turned into Mongeese by her than the other two.

"We'd humbly request ambrosia or nectar, if there is any you would willingly spare for us." continued Luke.

I then decided a dramatic gesture was needed, although my body over sold it. I stood up, ignoring the intense pain and the general sensation of "shut down! override! OVERRIDE! FORCED SHUT DOWN!" my body was trying to send. I gave the best bow I could, before falling face forward into the dirt, where I generally oozed.

I realized then that the tall one didn't realize I was genuinely hurt. There was probably a tragic story there, involving men in general and intense betrayal, but I wanted no part in hearing it. It'll probably come out in a dream or some dramatic fight. These things always do.

"We'll give you ambrosia for the boys. And if you ever change your minds..." the tall one handed Thalia and Annabeth some brochures.

They then left, as if I wasn't dying and Luke wasn't restraining Thalia with a broken arm. Thalia made sure they were not quite out of sight before she started tearing her brochure into smaller and smaller pieces. When she wasn't looking, Annabeth slipped hers into her backpack.

Thalia and Luke then left to have one of their private talks, although I personally felt Luke should have healed his arm first before risking it. Annabeth help me to lean upright against a rock, where I sat in general agony. And also some pretty specific pain.

"Are you okay Percy?" asked Annabeth, gently feeding me some nectar.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said the stomach wounds aren't going to interfere with my quest to become a Pokémon master." I answered, trying to smile. And then I knew no more.

XxX

That night we had a pretty democratic discussion. "Guys..I think we should seriously consider going to this camp half blood...it used to be that we got attacked maybe once a month. Now it's more like once a week. If it continues like this, it might become once a day." said Luke, not really looking us in the eyes.

"It might just be that our scents are becoming stronger...or Kronos is stirring again...or someone is hunting us..." continued Thalia. "Either way, the camp seems to be the only place where we will definitely be safe. Well, safer anyway."

Neither me nor Annabeth really knew what to say. This sort of felt like being abandoned, even though they were coming with us.

"So...we know the direction this camp is in. We can be there in two days." concluded Luke. He grinned apologetically at me and Annabeth. "Guess the ride is over."

That was the first night that we didn't really talk around the camp-fire. Strange as it sounds, this was the happiest I had ever been . I did not want it to end.

But it had to.

**Authors Notes:**

**I see that Annabeth's Hat and Riptide are both considered characters now.**

**Goddamnit fandom.**

Next chapter: Percy Vs. Death.


	3. Percy Vs Death

Brothers By Rage

Percy Vs. Death

"We're getting close to camp." said Luke. "Unfortunately, it seems a second sea of monsters is going to form between us and it. And this one will not have seawater. Instead it will have more monsters."

We were sitting in a makeshift camp site. No fire, no phones, no anything really. Most of what we had used to survive the past two years we had already abandoned. It's the last ditch sprint to apparent safety. Or possibly a Denny's if we see one on the way.

"How many people do you think are going to be at camp?" asked Annabeth, looking at Luke with wide eyes.

"A hundred...maybe a hundred and twenty." answered Luke, looking at the crystal. "We are about four miles away. Unfortunately, we have no way of letting them know that." He sighed. "This might the hardest part of our journey."

Thalia smiled and rubbed his shoulder. "We've been in way tighter situations than this. And we didn't even have Percy then. We can do this."

None of us wanted to admit it, but if Luke was scared, we should all be terrified. He was our fearless leader. I've seen him shrug off hydra bites, grin as empousia attacked us, actually give the finger to a dragon ...I never thought I'd see him scared. I also never thought I'd see him with a less than awesome hairstyle, but we really were running all the time.

"You know, we should maybe write our adventure down. Some of the things we've done...we might actually become part of mythology." I said, trying to change the subject away from our inevitable doom. And besides, my ego needed more stroking than an alley cat that no one wanted to stroke because it had rolled in fish guts.

Luke and Thalia laughed. "Yeah. Maybe. Except I don't think we'd make good poster Childs for how loving the gods are. So they'll probably suppress us. Like good music." said Thalia.

Luke shook his head. "For the last time, Five for Fighting are way better than Alice in Chains. Just cause they don't pretend to be all dark and edgy does not mean- "

Thalia punched him. Kitty got claws. Or should it be moose got antlers? Meh. I never get how we still manage to jump from hunted animals to normal teens. Sometimes in the same conversation. It might not be keeping us alive, but it definitely gives us a reason for trying to stay alive.

"Try and get some sleep." said Luke. "Tomorrow...we're either dead or saved. Or maimed beyond all recognition. But really, let's aim for either dead or saved."

xxx

It was my turn to watch. I always felt a bit creepy doing it. Two really hot and somewhat older girls sleeping near me, while I watched. I would wait until they were fully asleep, and then I would wait some more. And it felt weird, knowing that Luke, who was like ten times stronger than me trusted me with his life. But I did an okay job. I managed to get us out of trouble a bunch of times when we had chosen bad sleeping spots. And this night...well...

I actually noticed when we were surrounded by a few dozen of Tartarus's worst rejects. Hellhounds, dracaena...the Kindly Ones. And was that the Minotaur behind those bushes? Yes, yes it was. So, yeah, plus points for spotting them, minus several million for only doing said spotting when they were about three feet away.

It raised a little question. Should I wake my friends, knowing that they'll spend their last minutes in a hopeless battle, with all the associated pain and horror of watching us die one after the other?

Or should I just let them die blissfully in their sleep, and hope we see each other again in the Underworld?

I wanted to scream. We would go down like heroes. But I couldn't. Blind panic grabbed my mind. You know pants wetting terror? Or heart stopping terror? That was nothing, NOTHING compared to what I felt in that clearing. The worst was, it wasn't even connected to anything. It just was. I started shaking. I fell to the floor. I think my heart was going to explode. And then it stopped. I opened my eyes and I was staring at the lord of the dead. I was almost blinded by the sweat pouring off my face, but I managed to wipe most of it off.

"Lord Hades." I said, bowing slightly before falling to the floor again. Heck, I would probably have licked his boots clean to avoid that terror again. I would have donated him my bone marrow and my left kidney. I would have commented on ALL his youtube videos.

"Perseus Jackson...the man of the hour." said Hades, mockingly returning the bow.

"So...I'm curious. You guys are quite the group of fighters aren't you?" I noticed my friends were still surrounded by monsters and sleeping soundly while I was now some distance away. "Tell me...against all those little monsters...how long do you think they'll last? Answer in seconds please...I don't want anything unrealistic. "

I didn't want to give him the damn satisfaction. But I also didn't want to give him even more reason to kill my friends. "Fifteen." I guessed.

"Excellent." responded Hades. "Perhaps you'll see it as a game now. Picture it! That hellhound over dear will jump onto dear Annabeth, his left paw will crush her windpipe while he then starts to rip her throat out with his teeth."

"The blood sounds or smells might startle Luke or Thalia of course, so while that is happening one of my dear Kindly Ones will take her whip and sever Luke's stomach. He'll be able to stand and fight but only for as long as it takes his insides to fall out or his heart to stop from blood loss. He'll have fought his entire life as a hero and he'll die trying desperately to save his friends but being unable to work up even half of his strength...he'll be utterly useless and completely unable to save him friends from foes he's beaten time and time again. And he'll be the last to die. Perhaps we should wait until he can no longer move and then get one of the hellhounds pups to finish him. Or just leave him there to bleed out, surrounded by his friends. We might even drag their corpses on top of him while he still lives, for an eternal embrace he'll never escape."

"Now Thalia...daughter of Zeus...she deserves something special don't you feel? Perhaps the Minotaur, look, there he is, behind those bushes should gore her and rip her arm off. That shield of hers you know...quite nasty. We should then keep her alive so Luke has something to fight for. All the while cutting deeper and leaving more wounds, so she can't focus and call down lightning. Maybe we should just gouge out her eyes and let blindly try to save her friends, doing more harm than good. Of course, that might finish Luke which will be so boring, so let's leave that as a plan B."

He paused and let some of it sink in. I don't know what had caused my previous panic, but now it was filling me with visions as Hades spoke. Whatever he said I saw. But more than that. I could hear it, smell it. I could almost feel their blood spluttered upon me. It was too real. I saw Annabeth killed, Luke dying and trying to get up again and again, Thalia ripped to pieces and unable to help at all.

"Or maybe we should disarm them all and let them try their luck against the flesh eating horses. Give them a sporting chance. Or we could cut their arms off and give them no chance." continued Hades, and so did the visions. Or rather experiences.

"What do you want?" I managed to spit out, still lying on the floor.

"Percy, I want justice. Unlimited money. Hot bitches with class. And the corpses of everyone I hate. Guess which desire I'm working on tonight." answered Hades, clearly just wanting to draw this out, as the visions kept tormenting me.

"I'm guessing it would be foolishly optimistic to say justice?" I asked.

He suddenly slapped me through the face. His hand burned somehow, like dry ice does. Either way, pain. That's what I'm trying to bring across here. Don't let a god play slap-a-bitch with you.

"Never answer a question with a question. Now Percy, what I want is Thalia's head. You see, Zeus took a woman I loved from me, and as I enjoy Thalia's mom's TV show, I'm forced to kill Thalia. The circumstances are completely beyond my control."

He grinned at me, and the darkness suddenly became darker. If that makes sense. Let's just say everything that makes the night scary...the half shadows, the weird noises, the misleading shapes...all of that became about ten times worse. Horror movie directors would pay to get that Hades touch. You could practically feel the scantily clad girls going off to investigate some spooky sounds.

"Now, I admit, killing the four of you would be easy. But it would also be bad for me. See, Zeus will be pissed but understanding. An eye for an eye, a mortal for a half mortal...really, it's basically a fair trade. But Athena and Hermes will be peeved. Now, I'm not afraid of them and they can't really do anything to me, but only a fool goes about causally making enemies whom he has to spend eternity with. But your dad Percy...well, Poseidon will be flat out raging if I killed you. See, he seems to thinks you deserve to live after you survived my manticore."

He sighed. "Silly bastard, I know. But I really can't make four enemies for something as small as your lives. So Thalia dies. But Luke and Annabeth will make it to the camp. That means the force I send has to kill Thalia, but it has to be small enough that Luke and Annabeth can get away. You complicate matters. You see, one lucky break and Thalia goes free. So...I'll make you a deal Percy. I'll let you go on your merry way if during the confusion of the fighting, Annabeth completely focused on hellhounds, one bites her arm, she turns away from Thalia to get the thing off, Luke valiantly giving his full attention to the minotaur, not seeing what's going on at all...you kill Thalia. "

"What?" I asked numbly.

"It's simple. You and your two friend's lives are guaranteed safe. You all get to go to camp half blood where you'll make lots of lovely friends and forget Thalia ever existed. Burn a shroud for her, honour her memory. Everybody wins. Because Percy, I'm going to kill Thalia no matter what you decide. You can just make the process a lot less bloody and corpsey for everyone who loves her." Whispered Hades, sounding calm and reasonable, his voice like silk.

"Think about it Percy...she has an immortal enemy. No one can beat death, and death has come for her. The only thing you have to think of is how many people are going to die with her? Are the people she loves going to get to live happy lives or will you have to explain to her in the Underworld how all this could have been avoided." continued Hades, still with the same calming tone. This was the voice of a guy who would convince you to kill yourself. My mind almost blacked out with terror, the only comfort in the world his voice...

"I think I have an answer for you." I said, standing up, still shaking a lot.

"Yes? Have you reached the right decision through logic or cowardice? I do hope logic, because that makes it more likely that you'll actually be capable of pulling it off." replied Hades, smiling at me like I was a dog which had learned a really nifty trick.

"Actually, I probably reached this one through sheer stupidity." I said, and with all the hate in me, all the rage knowing that this ...this god this thing was responsible for the death of my mother, my hand shot out with Annabeth's spare knife and I and stabbed the lord Hades.

Unfortunately, he was a god and he pretty much raised his hand before I could hit his chest. Still, a knife through the hand...while it had to hurt, it just doesn't seem as cool to have been eternally damned for.

"You know the ironic thing?" asked Hades calmly, but I could see the rage and hate in his eyes. "I'm going to keep you alive, just so that this will be so much sweeter." He was holding my left hand in his.

He waved his right hand and I was no longer in the world of the living.

xxx

Luke woke as the light hit his face. He stared around at the camp site and suddenly yelled "Where the hell is Percy!"

Thalia also woke up. She would have been the next to watch, but Percy never woke her for her shift. She quickly figured out that the ground around them was flattened and trampled. As if several really big and angry things were in a circle around them while they slept.

"Monsters were here..." she said. "But why didn't we hear anything?"

Luke also started inspecting the surrounding area. Huge paw prints. Broken branches the size of pythons. "He wouldn't have tried to take them all himself would he?"

Annabeth was also awake now, and looking around. "No...There's no sign of a struggle. No spread out leaves or indications of really sudden movement. Whatever was here sneaked up on us." She stared at the sheer amount of paw prints and foot prints.

"Maybe...he...I don't know...led them away?" asked Thalia, but she looked sick, as though she finally started to accept what most likely had happened to Percy.

Annabeth screamed. She had just found the severed remains of Percy's left hand. She pulled herself together. "Well...it's an almost unnaturally clean cut...I don't think a monster did this..."

"At least not an imprecise monster." said Luke. "One of Hephaestus's creations could have done it." He paused. "He can't be dead."

"I think he can." said Thalia softly, putting her hand of his shoulder.

Luke looked at her, and he looked older. Not aggressive, but far scarier than any monster Thalia had ever seen before. And far more vengeful.

"We have to go." she continued. "Percy gave his life for us. He probably drew them off..." Annabeth nodded. Luke just continued to look scary. "But I won't let either of you die. We have to get out of here. Percy...wouldn't want us to die."

Luke nodded and looked towards the direction camp was. "Hey...a satyr." he said softly, as Grover neared the group, nervously fingering his reed pipes.

"I finally found you!" he said happily. "You guys really move around quickly! Come on, we have to get to camp. I sensed a lot of monsters around here last night and... why...why is there a hand?"

"Never mind that." said Luke, who went down on his knees and started digging with his hands. Whenever he hit roots or obstructions, Annabeth would help him with her knife.

Grover looked like he wanted to make a comment about the whole wasting time thing or maybe he was just nauseous about the whole severed hand thing.

They threw the hand in the hole, and they all threw some dirt on it. Thalia even sprayed it with pepper spray. "Keeps animals away." she explained.

"He was...a good friend." said Luke simply.

"He was really brave and loyal." said Annabeth, equally simply.

"He was a hero." said Thalia, and that was really what they felt defined Percy Jackson.

Grover, who by now had counted the halfbloods, concluded that he was really screwing this up. "Come on..." he said hesitantly. "Really, we aren't safe at all. We have to get to camp quickly, before they all get back."

"You know who really isn't safe?" asked Thalia. "Any monsters standing between us and this damn camp." The three of them turned and started walking.

"Um...wrong way." said Grover. They glared, but went in the correct direction.

Xxx

"How far are we now?" asked Luke, guessing they had walked about four miles. They had abandoned most of their stuff, as they probably wouldn't need it any more. Especially all the mementos of the monsters Percy killed.

"Really close." Grover reassured them. "We only need to get up...that...hill..."

"The hill covered in hellhounds and the kindly ones? And dracaena. That one?" asked Thalia, taking out her spear and activating Aegis.

"And the Minotaur. Look, behind those bushes." said Annabeth, readying her knife and baseball cap.

"Yep...guess we're going to get to start getting some vengeance. Probably won't make us feel better, but maybe if we try for long enough..." Luke grimaced, calmly flourishing his sword.

The hellhounds charged. They did not expect the halfbloods to charge as well, but most were pleasantly surprised by it. Until the slaughtering began. Lightning rained down, Luke was almost a blur, jumping from corpse too corpse, and several hellhounds fell down dead, never realising who killed them. Protip in case their adventures ever become a cluedo like board game: It was the invisible girl in the baseball cap with the knife.

And then the kindly ones came. Luke, who was in way too deep, was attacked by two of them at the same time. They were screeching, scratching and gouging. Of course, they're opponents usually flinched or fled. They didn't start grinning like they were enjoying it and start fighting back even harder.

Another one of the furies managed to rip Annabeth baseball cap off, who was in the middle of a sea of helllhounds. She turned, ready to die, when Thalia jumped over to her, impaling four of them, lightning shooting everywhere, Aegis causing the rest to fall back whimpering.

That's when the battle turned. The Minotaur jumped in, and brought its club down hard. Thalia managed to block it, but she could feel her arm break from the force. Or it might have been from the fact that the third fury managed to stab her in the arm.

She screamed, and the electricity knocked both of them back. She grabbed Annabeth and threw her out of harm's way. Well, not really out of it, more like right next to it. Sort of on the side.

Luke was falling back, his chest a pretty criss-cross picture of scars, his sword exploding into everything which came close to him. One of the furies managed to sneak up on him, and wrapped her whip around his leg with a mighty strike. She pulled, causing him to fall down into almost certain death.

Unfortunately, he didn't get that memo, and several of the hellhounds who pounced on him were soon corpses. But he was tiring. Heads which first flew not were now merely severed. He managed to get up. But he knew he wouldn't be able to do it again.

"Annabeth!" Yelled Thalia. "Get into the camp! We'll follow you!" Annabeth ran and put her baseball cap back on, glad that she was invisible. That way they couldn't see that she kept turning back and tried to help. "You too Luke! You're dying!"

With a sarcastic salute, Luke vaulted the line, which pretended to fearfully break their lines. In a better, less near fatally wounded condition, Luke would have realised that it almost like a tactical retreat. Like they had been ordered to run away if the boy made a break for it.

"Now you!" he yelled, stumbling and falling to the ground, swinging his sword at nothing.

Several of the hellhounds turned to him, snarling. The Minotaur turned to crush him. All the monsters readied to get revenge for what Luke had done to all of them. He was finished.

And then Thalia did what Hades knew she would, and brought down the sky, using her own body as a lightning rod. Annabeth, who had taken care of the closest few hellhounds, got out of the way. A circle had cleared around Thalia, who was still standing groggily. Then, all three furies struck together.

"No!" yelled Luke, trying to stand, legs giving and falling again, his hands losing his grip on his sword. Annabeth moved, but a single bolt of lightning knocked her back down, away from the hellhounds.

Thalia turned to look at them. "One last thing..." she said, smiling at them despite the pain. "Live."

Lightning filled the world. Luke clutched his eyes shut and started crawling towards Thalia. When he could see again, all that was left was the teeth of hellhounds and the Minotaur's horns.

And a pine tree.

**Authors Notes:**

**The M section really is delightful at the moment. Admittedly, it's mostly good for cheap laughs but dammit, I never realised "One Night In Cabin Three" or "We'll have a good time tonight" would be topped.**

**Next chapter: Shock & Awesome**


	4. Shock And Awesome

**Brothers By Rage**

**Shock And Awesome**

"New recruits?" asked Mr.D disinterestedly, as the boy was dragged to him. Annabeth was still walking or rather limping, but not saying anything. "Dear me...get the Apollo kids to heal them. Then bring them to me."

The rest of the campers were staring at the 14 year old boy who looked like several monsters had made a really decent attempt to really turn him mincemeat. Two of the Apollo kids picked him up and dragged him to the big house.

It was four days before Luke could stand again. Both of them were kept in the big house until they could finally meet the camp counsellors.

"So...you're Chiron?" asked Luke, still trying to get his head around the whole idea of the legendary trainer of heroes being here and now: finally, he could get conclusive proof that he was better than all of them. Or at the very least, that he had the best looking hair.

"Yes... and I've been Chiron for about two millennia now." answered the centaur. "And I must say, I am impressed by the willpower and skill you showed on that hill. I feel your parent will become incredibly proud of you."

For a second, Luke looked thoughtful. "It's not him I want proud of me. Let's meet this...Mr.D"

xxx

Luke sat in a chair, staring hollowly at his hands. The sound of cards being shuffled filled the room, and Annabeth silently entered.

He smiled at her, but his eyes didn't. She returned the smile and was bursting to tell him about all the things she had learned while he had been recuperating.

"Well, let's get to the important matters. Do either of you know how to play Cribbage?" asked a chubby man in a Hawaiian shirt.

Both of them shook their heads. Mr.D sighed. "Well, looks like it's me and the horse again. Luckily it's a two player game."

Chiron showed some agitation at being called the horse, but he had much more serious things to consider for the moment.

"Well, it seems the usual orientation won't be necessary. Considering how you have suffered, you must be fully aware of what you are." he began.

Annabeth and Luke nodded.

"As neither of you have been claimed, you will both stay in the Hermes cabin. We apologise for our failure to get to you before...whatever happened to your friends occurred. However, we believe there was a reason for it."

Luke's head suddenly shot up, like he was injected with espresso. "Does that imply...there is someone I can blame?" he asked. "Possibly stab and torture for a lovely fucking weekend?"

"Tongue." said Mr.D boredly. "Generally, don't swear in the presence of gods."

Luke nodded. But kept his attention fully focused on Chiron.

"A few years ago, there was a prophecy regarding the children of the big three." began Chiron.

"Zeus, Poseidon and Hades." guessed Annabeth.

"Indeed. And this prophecy stated that the next child of the big three to reach 16 might save or doom the gods. Now, Hades, Zeus and Poseidon don't really like the idea of a halfblood having that kind of choice, so they made an oath. An oath to not have any more children. Your friends Percy and Thalia were thus...held accountable by that oath."

"You mean they actively chose to be born? Cause I don't really get how they are the oathbreakers here." said Luke coldly.

"I can see I'm going to have trouble with you." noted Mr. D, setting up the game.

"I apologise Lord Dionysus...but two of my best friends have been killed for reasons which have absolutely nothing to do with them. I believe some angst is in order, but I'll be stepping it up into rage in a very short while. Maybe add in some vengeance, just to shake things up." replied Luke.

Mr.D stared at Luke for a short while. "Boy,I don't do advice. So consider yourself honoured when I say revenge will only be a hole which you dig for yourself. Rather learn to play Cribbage. Or hearts. Your mind will be focused and it lowers the chance of your body being filled with holes and stab wounds." His eyes were now completely focused on Luke , playing a 3D movie of horror and madness. "And of your neck getting choked by vines."

Chiron cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, ordinarily there would be a period of rest and training before half bloods are sent on what we call reclamation duty, but due to a shortage of available half bloods and both of you having proven yourself more than capable, we would like to ask you to assist us in our attempts as soon as you can. We will fully understand if you do not wish to re-enter the normal world for a while."

Annabeth looked thoughtful for a while. "Does that mean...we'll be rescuing other half bloods? Or just escorting them to camp?"

Chiron nodded. "Mostly, camp recruitment has been pretty routine. But lately, more and more monsters have been targeting less and less likely half bloods...as such, while it won't be completely safe, for someone such as Luke...it will hold little to no threat."

Luke stood shakily and reached for his sword. "Put me on your list. The Hermes cabin right?"

xxx

"So...you're the new guy huh? Heard you're pretty good with a sword." said Nathan, the head of the Athena cabin. He was currently training the Hermes cabin in sword fighting.

"Guess so." said Luke, taking the guy in.

"And you...you're a knife fighter right? And a child of Athena." he noted, looking at Annabeth's blonde hair and grey eyes. "Don't worry. She usually claims early."

"So...you wanna show me whatcha got?" asked Nathan, grinning at Luke. The rest of the class were also grinning, glad that for once it wouldn't be one of them serving as the punching bag.

Grinning, Luke leaped and hit Nathan without his body before either of them could draw their swords. He quickly drew his sword and placed it at Nathan's throat.

"Good enough?" he asked.

Nathan laughed. "Unorthodox, but good. We all need to be able to improvise. Now Luke let's have a proper duel..." There was an evil gleam in his eye. Some of the other campers felt sort of bad for Luke.

"I might actually be happy here." said Luke thoughtfully. "And you have library with architecture books here right?" he asked Nathan who nodded. "Okay. Everybody wins."

TWO YEARS LATER

Luke was sitting beneath Thalia's tree, reading several history books.

"Hey Luke." said Annabeth softly, joining him, and glancing at the titles of the books.

"Hey..." responded Luke, giving her a one armed hug. "I'm trying to find us. "

"What do you mean?" asked Annabeth.

"You see...this entire mythical world is stagnant Annabeth. There is nothing new. Nothing heals or grows. Things happen basically because Ares said something bad about Athena 700 years ago. The same patterns repeat and get...well, think of mythology as a set amount of plays, and all that ever happens is that we heroes keep preforming the plays with different characters and settings, but it's the same basic play every time." He turned another page. "I'm trying to figure out what we're preforming."

Annabeth was silent for a while, then she took a book from the pile and also started reading.

"Luke...do you hate the gods?" asked Annabeth nervously. She had noticed that Luke hadn't really tried to get to know most of the campers. He made sure to meet all the swordsman, and was satisfied when he could beat all of them after three months. He was the only one at camp who volunteered to be on the rescue team when a half blood was under attack from some of the worst monsters. There was a running joke that he lived in the Big House, due to the sheer amount of time he spent there recuperating.

In short, while people liked and admired Luke, no one really knew Luke. He was like a ghost figure, a cypher. While you could go up to him and he'll help you with your sword fighting or race you if you wanted to test your speed, he simply wasn't there most of the time. There was something taking hold of his mind. Annabeth wasn't sure which would be worse: it being something internal, an idea or obsession...or something external.

"Because if it turns out I'm going to join the titans and attempt to end the gods tyranny, the story will probably have been repressed and this search will be futile? Nice try but we will get through all these books." said Luke with a grin.

The reading continued in silence for a while. "I used to, you know." said Luke. " I hated them for what they did or rather didn't do for Percy and Thalia. Everytime I rescued some screaming kid from hordes of monsters I wondered if they even cared. If they ever cared. And sometimes...when I lay in my bed at night...I hear the whispers."

Annabeth looked scared but Luke laughed.

"Did you think you were the only one who heard the call? Something has been tempting all the halfbloods. It's been gathering strength unseen for a damn long time. And the gods haven't even started to retaliate. But there's this prophecy, which I used to think was the reason Hades or Hera would want to kill Thalia. A prophecy which said that a child of the big three will doom or save this world. No, our enemy is smart. Or maybe cunning is the better word. He won't mess with prophecies. He'll want at least one of them at his side."

"Percy...the night he was..." began Annabeth.

"Kidnapped. I don't think he was killed." said Luke. "And then when Thalia was attacked, there were all sorts of monsters. But none of Hera or Hades's trademark monsters. Except for the furies, who's job it was to enforce the oath." He paused, and laughed. "It seems like the titans took two of my best friends from me. So the gods can be as...disappointing as they want. I'm going to avenge Thalia and we'll rescue Percy. And then we'll win this war for the gods despite of everything they haven't done."

Annabeth was smiling. It was the first time she had heard any passion or emotion in Luke's voice for months.

"You know , all the worst governments that mortals have created have one thing in common. Very harsh penalties for anyone who criticises the government. " Luke laughed suddenly. "And blasphemy is the harshest crime we can commit isn't it?"

He picked up the books and stared at the pages, noting that this time, something was wrong. Like a final play was unfolding, all the patterns would be reset. "Come on...we need to become stronger. Harder. Better. Faster. We need to train while listening to Daft Punk." They walked into camp, over which a sort of mist hang. The Apollo and Ares cabins were in some sort of battle, the children of Aphrodite's make up was not applied with the usual incredible skill, some of the Demeter's cabin plants were wilting.

"Oh damnit." said Luke. "They all think they were the only one and it's some mark of betrayal or something...ATTENTION CAMP HALF BLOOD!" He suddenly yelled. "WE HAVE ALL BEEN CONTACTED BY TITANLY FORCES! THIS IS NOT BECAUSE ANY OF US ARE EVIL LYING SCUM OR GODS HELP US, SPECIAL! THIS IS MASS RECRUITING!" He then turned to an Ares guy how was muttering something in a couplet.

"Travis..." said Luke with a bolt of inspiration. "Make your first sentence end with orange."

"Why would I want to end a sentence with orange? My speech is-" He started sputtering.

"Luke...he was under a rhyming curse. I think his brain could actually explode now." said Annabeth worriedly.

"Or he'll fake out with a made up word or door hinge..." responded Luke, although personally, he was also hoping for some exploded brain.

He looked up at the list set with all the halfbloods chores. "We're set for another recruitment drive."

xxx

"The monsters are getting worse." said Annabeth, holding her damaged arm and inspecting it. Painfully, she plucked some spikes from it.

"Yeah..." said Luke, both his legs filled with cuts. "We almost didn't get away from that one." He stuffed an ambrosia cookie into his mouth. "Still, got those two Demeter kids. And the satyr who was tracking them is safe as well."

"Yeah...but their apartment building is looking terrible." commented Annabeth.

"Well...green furniture in a white room? They were asking for it." said Luke, but he was also bothered by the amount of collateral damage. "Kronos must be stirring. I read some of the older half bloods reports. It shouldn't be this bad."

Annabeth was silent for a while. "Only, does it have to be Kronos?" she asked. "Aren't there even older titans? Who maybe have more patience and actually have a plan other than just throw random monster after monster at the gods?"

Luke stroked the stubble on his chin. "Nah, it'll be Kronos. It's always Kronos. He wakes up, gets the whole pissed off bunch together, and then there's blood and chaos for a few years and the gods win again. This'll be the third time it's happened."

Annabeth didn't look convinced.

Chiron galloping towards them with a look that suggested ominous news didn't really help either.

"Luke...you have been chosen for a quest." he said hurriedly. "You must visit the oracle!"

Luke stood, ignoring the pain in his legs. "Well, this has been...sudden. And why was I chosen? Shouldn't I be a seeker or something to qualify?"

"Apparently there is something you seek. More than anything else." said Chiron.

Luke paused. "There is something...but it's more the journey than the destination if you get what I mean."

Even Annabeth looked confused at that statement.

Chiron looked pained. He remembered what had happened the last time the uprisings started...he could still remember all the heroes he lost to it. And he had a horrible suspicion that it wasn't his father this time.

Luke jumped up and went towards the big house. Waving at Annabeth, he quickly ran up to the attic. The rest of the camp had gathered around the entrance of the Big house, probably wondering who the third person who Luke would choose for the quest would be.

After a few minutes, he came back, grinning like a drug addict who washed up on a beach made of cocaine.

"Well, I do have a quest it seems. To the underworld. Very nasty. Dangerous. Probably should take some ambrosia and a sword."

"He's almost delirious with joy..." whispered one of the Apollo kids, who shall remain nameless, seeing as she was at no risk of dying and you thus didn't have to care about her yet.

"I get two companions. Oracle made it pretty clear who I should pick." said Luke, who was still ecstatic. "Annabeth...wanna tag along?"

Annabeth nodded.

"And secondly...I choose Thalia!" said Luke, waving his arm like he was throwing a Pokeball and broke down laughing.

There was a thunderclap. Someone(with serious issues) did not appreciate the cracks about his daughter.

"I'm serious." said Luke, staring happily into the sky. "She's in a sort of stasis isn't she...the crystal still responds when I come close to that tree. And now...we have a dilemma...I need to go into the underworld for a very simple thing … conformation ...because it seems a certain Titan has escaped."

Utter silence. Milking the awkward turtle level of silence. Even Mr.D went somewhat pale although he still pretended to be completely focused on his card game.

"But the things is...Kronos is still lying in a few million shallow graves, so it's up to us to figure out who it is. Now..." said Luke, and his smile was still almost blinding the sun. "The Oracle say I will go and find out who it is. So I will go. But it was very vague about the whole when I'm gonna do it... and I won't even try until you remove Thalia from stasis. You'll never know who it is until she's free."

He sat down on the ground and smiled at the surrounding campers. "Until you let her out, I'm not moving. Trust me, I have a lot of willpower." Thunderclaps started to fill the sky.

Luke just sat there, hands behind him, smiling at the sky.

The other campers, quite aware of the fact that they weren't lightning resistant, started slinking back towards their cabin's, staring at Luke as though he was completely and utterly insane.

It also started to rain.

"Um...Luke, this might not be the best idea." suggested Chiron, as Luke calmly sat, hands now in his lap, staring happily at the sky. A lightning bolt hit the dirt right in front of him, glass forming in the molten sand.

"You're right..." said Luke. "It's stupid to do this without sunglasses. Do you have any idea how bright these bolts are?" More thunder and lightning, clearly Zeus did not have much variation when he was trying to scare someone. Or did he ever really need any.

The tree nearest to Luke got hit by lightning and was set on fire. He was still grinning.

For four hours, this continued, some of the other campers occasionally checking whether or not Luke was cremated yet. But he still sat, soaking wet and grinning, surrounded by lightning stricken earth.

And then the thunder gave up. The rain cleared. "Come Annabeth." said Luke, walking over to Thalia's pine tree. Which slowly purged a human girl. She was still passed out, put Luke picked her up and draped her across his shoulders. "Let's go."

"Are you just really in a hurry, or do you want a lightning shield?" asked Annabeth.

"Promise you won't tell Thalia when she wakes up?" asked Luke.

xxx

They were already in a taxi on the way to the airport before Thalia woke up. Luke used the mist to make the mortals not realize that he was carrying a passed out girl around. Along with a shield, a sword and a suicidal grin.

"What...the hell...happened..." she said softly, noting that some nectar was dripping from her mouth.

Luke had to consider...was he going to be kind and compassionate and help her readjust knowing full well that he'll never, ever have such a good chance to screw with her again?

"It turns out we are the orphaned children of several millionaires. The monsters were our rich relatives in really realistic suits who wanted to eliminate us because they've been cut out of the will. We're now going to Hollywood to make a movie about how they killed our parents, to see if they did. Like a modern Macbeth." said Luke gravely.

"Stop screwing with me." said Thalia coldly, glaring at Luke.

"Oh goddamnit." muttered Luke.

xxx

They were making reasonably good time, walking, staying under the radar and generally not annoying the gods any more than necessary. When they saw a suspicious looking garden emporium, they avoided it. Of course, all the gods were quite eager to find out what was going on. The threat of the titans was essentially the threat of Kronos. No Kronos means they will be going in blind, and gods so love their omniscience.

"This would be so inconvenient if we couldn't fly..." noted Thalia, as they started walking from the airport.

"Yes...it would probably get all drawn out...maybe some plot twists, foreshadowing..." said Luke. "But really, you would expect the titan to at least attempt to stop us."

"Like that Hydra in the parking lot?" asked Annabeth, pointing towards the cars and the giant monster.

"Exactly." said Luke, finally satisfied. Said Hydra however then decided to do the obvious thing, and targeted the daughter of Zeus first. Triple simultaneous headbutt. She went down hard.

"Okay...we've dealt with these before. They're not that ridiculously tough." said Luke charging in with his sword drawn.

"Yessss...are you proud of killing my children?" it hissed at them, moving very fast for such a huge thing. Luke sidestepped and cut a huge gash in its leg.

They had indeed faced many hydra before. Unfortunately for them, they were now facing the mother of all hydra's. Or possibly the father. But to summarise, the first one. And there was a very good reason it took Hercules so long to kill her. Him. It.

"If there weren't twelve better candidates, I would nominate you for worst parent of the year." quipped Luke, moving his sword in a semi circle to block all three heads simultaneously.

It was getting messy. The police would soon get here, and a lot of people wouldn't be getting their luggage.

Luke grinned and jumped unto the hydra's back, out of the reach of its many heads. With a massive strike his sword went into its back and he started to pull. Soon there were two very dead Hydra halves. Which weren't disintegrating.

"Is it going to heal?" asked Luke in disbelief.

Unfortunately the Hydra decided to one up Luke's fear and it reformed so that it now had two bodies. To repeat: it did not grow a second head. It had effectively split in two new, also very pissed off Hydra's.

"Suckssss to be you!" they hissed.

Luke was grinning. This was way too good a chance to ever be passed up. "Guess you can finally go fuck yourself!" he said. He permitted himself a victorious arm pump.

Shakily, Thalia stood up. "What the hell!" she screamed. "Are there two of them now?"

"Yep." answered Luke, readying his sword.

Thalia looked thoughtful for a moment. "Did you tell it to go fuck itself?"

"Yep." answered Luke.

"Good work Luke." She ran towards Luke and suddenly it was two on two. "So..." she began. "We die, they win. We kill them, suddenly we're facing four Hydra's." She shook her head. "And you were complaining that this was boring."

There was a screeching noise as one of the baggage cars hit the Hydra so hard that it literally stuck to it. Annabeth jumped off as the Hydra crashed into the other one.

"Fight a losing battle later." she said. "Run now."

xxx

"So...the entrance to the underworld is in a recording studio?" asked Thalia disbelievingly.

"Yeah..." said Luke. "Now we just have to avoid everything else that can possibly kill us and we'll be fine."

They walked in silence.

"Huh...everything went better than expected." said Annabeth as they walked into DOA recording studios.

"Charon huh? I'll handle this." said Luke, taking out his sword. Thalia pulled him back and motioned to Annabeth to keep him back.

"We're on a quest from the gods." Thalia told Charon, who looked like he was about to speak. "So, no gods are going to be able to complain about how we go about this." She took out a spear in the one hand and some drachma's in the other. "So...we can either bribe you...or we can send your disintegrating essence ahead of us to lead us to Tartarus." She smiled like a black widow spider.

Charon fumbled nervously, straightening his suit. "And if, ah...I'm inclined to call for security? Hmm? You might just want to hand over the money, and we'll forget this talk ever happened."

"Yeah. Try and call without a head." said Luke, whose sword was now against Charon's neck.

"Or hands." added Annabeth, one knife on each of his hands.

Charon sighed. "The bribe then. I'll just add you guys to the latest boatload."

Thalia handed over the coins and they left.

xxx

As they reached the shore, Luke silently guided them away from the other spirits. He looked at Cerberus. While it would make a nice challenge...this was one place where Luke simply didn't have the time. Yeah...lack of time.

"Come on." he said, looking at the rocks on the walls, trying to feel the correct indentions.

"Are you seriously feeling up a cave?" asked Thalia. "Has Luke become desperate since I've taken my vay-kay?"

"Houdini's entrance." said Luke. "I think he used illusions and magic to get to this point...then he somehow manipulated Orpheus's entrance to create his own. His notes were in the big house. Found it!" He grinned, and broke off a piece of rock. Underneath were several Greek Characters.

"And he's started planning ahead? Seriously, what happened to the guy?" asked Thalia, as Luke started some complicated muttering. The entrance opened.

"Welcome to the afterlife." said Luke bleakly, stepping in.

The followed the tunnel until they it entered Erebus in a weird angle. Thalia was sniffing the air. "We must be very near Tartarus." she said. "It smells...terrible."

"Why would they need prisons?" asked Annabeth, admiring some of the architecture. "All the souls of the dead belong to Hades. They are completely in his power."

"Yeah...the keyword there is dead." said Luke. "These were made to hold the living."

He was wearing his insane smile again.

**Authors Notes:**

**Did you notice that Percy didn't initiate a single kiss in the books?**

**Next Chapter: Outer demons(Inside is empty)**


	5. Outer DemonsInside is Empty

**Brothers By Rage**

**Outer demons(inside is empty)**

I think I may really have pissed off the wrong guy this time. I think I'm in hell but also I'm dying. As opposed to dead.

Will I just reappear here when I'm all bled out?

Growling. Really loud growling. Should be a bad sign. I managed to stand up and look at my surroundings. It was mostly black wall and moss and blood. Lots of blood. Literal paragraphs written in blood. I tried to break some of the moss off the wall but it was almost painted on. It wasn't plastic, but it definitely wasn't alive either.

The other striking thing was that my cell had four 5 by 5 holes in the wall. Either it's a trap or the dead are just full on retard. The growling continued, and suddenly, I was actually pissed that my prison had holes in the wall.

I can be tortured for ever anyway, so I decided to check out the surrounding area. The rest of it was pretty much impenetrable. I was in a sort of room in a much bigger room. There was single exit filled in by a...thing which human speech has probably not yet named. I doubt anyone seeing that thing will bother to name it. Running away and dying seems much more likely.

It turned around. "Hello son of Poseidon. I'm Sven. I'll be your jailer until the mortal world is safe again." Well, it appears Sven did not want to eat and damn me just yet.

Sven was roughly seven meters tall, he carried a sword which was almost as long and his armour seemed to be made of ice. And then there was the chains. Swirling around him were several spiked chains which were attached to his body randomly. I don't know if it was for defending or attacking. But his mouth was the worst. Sharp. Pointy. Filled with people shaped holes. The human part of me was screaming that I was seeing the teeth of every single thing that had ever eaten my ancestors.

"So uh...how long will that be." I asked. "Sir?" I added as an afterthought, as I really didn't want this thing to eat me.

"Time is relative. He's your grandpa." said Sven, and chuckled. "Sorry...Kronos is your grandfather and all that."

Okay...did not realize his humour would be the worst part of my imprisonment.

"Well, you Percy, you will be kept here until Lord Hades no longer wants to keep you here." Continued Sven, grinning at me through teeth...don't focus on...teeth...

"And that will be?" I trailed off, realising that although it probably was somewhere between now and forever, I didn't really want to know. And while I'm down here, life being wasted in a jail, my friends are probably dying or trying to escape a horde of really pissed off monsters.

"I have no idea." answered Sven.

"Well, Sven, lovely meeting you, we must keep contact, possibly through Ouija boards or something, but right now, I'm going to have the rip you to pieces and smear the insides all over these walls." I said, with a lot more bravado than I felt.

"You are going to defeat me unarmed?" said Sven, and laughed again. I didn't really get it until I saw the lack of left hand on my left arm.

And then the pain hit me.

xxx

It was a few hours later, and several things were still bugging me, some things more than others. Mostly, I was wondering why my wound looked incredibly fresh yet I wasn't bleeding. But the whole escape plan thing was also getting some attention.

Unfortunately, all it convinced me of so far was that it was futile. There was nothing between me and freedom but Sven.

I would have preferred several hordes of hellhounds, the kindly ones, several maths and grammar tests and a discussion with an overly hormonal girl who I only wanted to be friends with about my feelings.

See, Sven was in a class of his own. I'm guessing there were no myths about him because he killed everything which ever saw him. Not a comforting thought, but he seemed quite peaceful and content to just stand and guard me forever.

"So uh..." I began, trying to make conversation. "Do my wounds regenerate here or do they just...not get worse?"

"They stay the same. There are no bacteria, no viruses and no life down here save the prisoners. You are to all extents and purposes immortal. You'll just wish that you weren't. Over, and over again." answered Sven, in his deep voice. Teeth. Stupid teeth. "The other guards like to play with their charges. Very nasty games."

"So...I'm just going to stay here...and well, be the same forever?" I asked.

"No..." laughed Sven. "In order to honour an agreement with your father, you will age normally until the age of 15. Thereafter, you shall stop."

"So...I can still train? Get stronger?" I asked, not wanting to be distracted from the important part.

"Indeed you can." answered Sven. "I do hope it's because you plan to defeat me eventually. I have literally _never_ had a real challenge. Some of the other guards have spoken of it. It sounds nice."

"Get ready for it then." I said, already starting to do push ups. "You'll soon wish you never experience another one."

xxx

That was pretty much the first few weeks. No lamenting. I was over that. For now, I'll just become stronger and stronger, until I can have my revenge. Also, I was pretty sure that this was the only way to stay even remotely sane.

The cold or lack thereof was probably the worst. And the constant screaming going on around me. It seemed Hades varied the times at which the other guards were allowed to torture their subjects, so there was a constant symphony of pain around me. Sven didn't really bother with pure torture. He might have changed his mind if I wasn't constantly willing to spar with him though.

Sven it turned out was really serious when he said he wanted a challenge. He managed to secure me two daggers which I started training with, although I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as fighting with swords.

We would spar, if you could call me dodging him and him disarming me within a few seconds sparring. Still, at least he applauded my efforts. I also started to really explore my cell, which was filled with writing. The previous guy had kept writing on the walls, mostly insane instructions. There was also a disturbingly blood covered corner, where the writing in blood looked like he was trying to convey yelling. Large capital letters, which were also written in his blood. Clearly he assumed CAPSLOCKFTW.

"Do you know anything about that?" I asked Sven one day, when I gave up trying to figure out what it was about.

"The previous prisoner in this cell was accomplished with magic. Seeing as your blood replenishes yet lasts forever once smeared on the walls, she started working her magic through the walls. Her spells began to attract Lord Hades's attention, and eventually she tried to escape. The final spell threw her into the depths of Tartarus, which could hardly have been her intention." He looked around the blood spattered walls. "Some feel that Lord Hades wanted you here due to bloody appearance of the place. Personally, I feel he hopes you will attempt to copy her and save him the hassle that you being alive will cause him."

The next day, I found some loose slabs under which a spear, some gloves and several notebooks were hidden. Unsurprisingly, they were also unintelligible to me. But I managed to recognise one phrase which appeared in all the notes books.

It was also all over the walls.

"My master Kronos."

xxx

There is something I should probably point out, just so the next bits make more sense. Have you ever sat in the same room with unchanging decoration and a single demon guard for a few months? With a nonstop orchestra of screams around you? And constantly feeling cold, so cold that you're bones feel like they're cracking? Now add in some worry about your friends dying, mix it up with some hyper realistic visions you have of them being ripped to pieces by monsters every time you try to sleep and voila! You're a fucking lunatic.

I think it would have broken me completely if I didn't have Sven. His constant lust for a challenge gave me some focus. It gave me a single light in the void my life had become.

I think I'm getting stronger, but that might just be my typical optimism. I could now last several seconds against Sven.

"Sven..." I asked one day. "You're sure all my wounds are supposed to stay the same right?"

"Yes...I haven't given you any new ones have I?" asked Sven, probably concerned because wounds would make it even harder for me to eventually give him a challenge.

"No...it's just...my stub...it's tinged with black...like rot I guess, but there's also a lot of red." I noted.

"Hmmm...and it's not painful?" asked Sven.

"Nope." I said.

"Well, it's probably some new torture from Lord Hades. Relax. It'll begin being painful soon enough." replied Sven.

xxx

It didn't start hurting, but it did start freaking me out. My hand was reforming. With black and red skin and golden flesh.

This is generally not a good sign, although I admit I don't really have anything to compare it with.

Some part of me was glad, thinking it might allow me to actually escape from this place if I had both hands. The bigger part of me however, was aware that it would make no difference at all. It also helped relieve the dullness somewhat, but still.

It started to make me worry about all the writings on the wall around me. Maybe something lay dormant in this cell, and now it was healing me. Or trying to take me over. And that panic is my excuse for what happened next: I tried to figure out how to work the magic for myself.

I started looking for a beginning, trying to get everything ready. After a few more weeks, I was finally confident enough to go ahead. It could have been the biggest mistake of my live. As it was, I rate it about 7 out of 10.

A sort of mist filled the cell, and I realised something was blocking Sven's vision or distracting him. He didn't react at all to what was going on.

"_You...are dead..."_ came a voice from the shadows, and I realised I had done what so many had tried to do: I had hit rock bottom, and started to drill downwards.

"Um...well, ah...Kronos?" I guessed, not really happy with how this had turned out. I thought he could get me out of here, not start threatening me. Threatening usually leads to the whole pledging your immortal soul to be the gods punching bag thing. Once again, not recommended.

"_You are not...Lydia..."_ came the voice again.

"Well, yeah." I answered. "I am Percy Jackson and I'm well, sort of trapped in her old cell and ah...I need help I guess." Damnit. I really did not know how to plead to a titan for help. It was not the kind of thing you got second chances at, so yeah. I fucked up.

"_Indeed...well, I am already helping you boy...although this gives me focus..." _said the voices, and pain shot through the ghost of my left hand.

I stared at the black and red mess, which consisted of a palm and some pinky. Now, pieces of blackness was floating out of the mist and repairing it, making it even larger and forming fingers. Within seconds, I had a left hand again.

"_That is my hand...I started to reform it, using the stub on your left hand as the focal point...your essence is currently hiding it from Hades. Anymore, and he might detect it on you..."_

"Um...well, thank you I guess. But see, the hand situation, well bad, is not the main one. There's this whole, me being stuck in this cell thing which is really the reason I uh..." Called? Bloodmessaged? Goddamnnit I did not think this all the way through.

Something like laughter came from the mist. _ "Look boy, usually, I would be manipulating you and there'd be a plot, some scheming, generally we'd be wading towards Olympus through a sea of bodies. But as I am now I can barely think. I can barely...more blood...quickly, more blood...please...I beg..."_

This was the crossroads of stupidity, round two. Give the scary disembodied voice more of my blood or stop with this whole business?

In case you didn't get my current MO, I was soon making two new cuts on my right arm.

"_The blood magic allows me some...semblance of what I am. Was. But I will not be able to continue this for long. My father, Oranos has reformed, and he shall wage war on the gods. For what your mind has revealed to me...I must try to think...summon me again in a few weeks...I will let you know when..."_

Okay. That was quite stupid, but put yourself in a dark pit for a few weeks with only a seven foot demon for company and we'll see how rational your decisions are. But for some reason, I believed him. Not about everything, but about the inability to think. I'm pretty sure that the prophecy which Sven told me about, would've led to Hades ensuring Kronos stays broken.

And I may have been a bit biased on account of getting a new hand. My pimp hand is officially the hand of the most evil being that ever existed...fuck yeah.

xxx

I had gotten into the habit of wearing the gloves all the time. It made me look weird, but still a lot less weird than having a black and red hand would.

I spent a lot of time worrying about how impulsively I had messed with the blood rituals...and I began to suspect that some of the lingering magic was affecting my judgement. What was left of it anyway. I continued doing more and more exercises, and training harder and harder with Sven, who seemed to view me as his protégé. Or at least as the best exercise he's had in the last few centuries.

"You are doing well." said Sven, as I fell to the ground for about the 400th time. "But you rely too much on pure strength...that makes you vulnerable to stronger opponents."

I coughed, glad that I was basically immortal and that all these beatings weren't having a cumulative effect. "So, I just have to become stronger that everyone, then that changes from a minus into another plus."

"Except we all have limits Percy Jackson." said Sven, two chains lifting me back into standing position. "No monster is comparable to a god. No god is all mighty. You keep improving, but eventually you will hit a wall."

I fell to one knee but remained standing. "Do you think if I hit the wall hard enough, it'll break?" I asked, wondering, not for the first time, what would happen if I used the hand of Kronos to fight. Not wield weapons, like I did with the daggers, but to actually use the hand of a titan as a weapon. It had a certain appeal.

"Possibly, but you will lose much. I sense much potential in you Percy Jackson. This prophecy might still be about you." His ice armour reformed in the parts where I had damaged it.

"Round two." I said grinning like a madman.

"You can barely stand." noted Sven, but he still readied himself.

I had a pretty witty answer to that. But I decided to give everything to the fight instead.

xxx

I don't know what limits I was reaching, or even what limits I was overcoming, but I was definitely stronger than I was when Hades threw me in here. A lot stronger.

And one day, or night, it doesn't really make a difference where I am, I saw an eye staring at me from the floor.

I had seen creepier, but it was definitely in the top 5.

The really bad part was that the eye kept looking at me as I walked around the room, rolling so that it could keep me in its sights. Then it started looking from me to the wall. Me, the wall. Me, to the word Kronos. Kronos was calling me.

I sighed. Well, certain eternal imprisonment with the gods, or I take a chance and possibly lose my soul. Gambling for the highest stakes. I picked up my dagger and held it to my arm. Guess I'm all in.

The mist came back, a lot thicker, and my hand tingled.

"_Ah, young Percy, good to see you."_

Why does every evil thing I meet lately have a fondness for puns?

"_I think I may have found a problem for our...dilemma...it's a tad odd, but you'll see, if we stick to the current rules, or whatever the world is shaping up to at the moment, neither of us can...win, shall we say."_

"So...what exactly is our dilemma? Just to be clear, the gods existing and people having, well, civilization isn't really a dilemma to me." I said.

Laughter. "_Well Percy, our dilemma is power. Currently, almost all of it rests in two camps, that of the gods, and that of the titan lord Oranos. Well, I ate my children and murdered my father. As such, there isn't really a place for me in either camp. You are a threat to the gods, and a much wanted yet very disposable weapon to the titans."_

I nodded. This sounded about right, although he didn't use enough adjectives to describe me.

"_My plan is simple. It will however, require that you partially trust me, up until a certain point, and then you must trust me completely. As a symbol of my trust for you, I gave you my hand and eye."_

"Which definitely cannot be used to posses and take over my body?" I asked, hoping that he was as scattered as he claimed to be.

"_Percy, after you hear the plan you will understand fully. Afterwards, if you accept, press my eye into your right eye socket. It will fuse with your eye, allowing you some of my vision. And it will play a very vital role in the final part of the plan."_

I paused. This is the part where my life is decided. Be the toy of the gods or...possibly be the chew toy of the titans...all I had to do was to trust the ultimate betrayer and liar.

"Tell me the plan." I said.

And then he unfolded it. It was simple. It was effective. And it convinced me of one thing: The titan lord Kronos was either a genius or completely insane. Taking into account how he spent the past few millennia, it should be a pretty easy to guess which one.

"But this plan...I won't need any contact from you until..."

"_Indeed. And I doubt I'll be able to talk to you even if you wanted me too. If you accept, you'll only hear from me again at the endgame. It's up to you to get us there."_

I nodded. I was already on one path. I looked up, in the direction where I thought the gods would be. And suddenly my defiance flared up, and rage filled me.

Rage for my mother, who should never have died.

Rage for my friends, who are probably still being hunted while their parents do nothing.

Rage for myself, and this fucking tragedy the gods have made of my life.

Bracing myself, I jammed the eye into my right eye socket.

xxx

I made my choices. It would be cool to say "I wasn't human any more". But the truth was, I was pretty much unchanged. Sometimes, the eye gave me weird vision, and I could see things a few milliseconds before they happened. And the hand almost never lost its grip on anything. But I was still too weak to do what I had to do. Sven was still unbeatable.

The other annoying thing was that my prison seemed to border Tartarus. And it definitely seemed like a shitload of things, very pissed off things, with very big and sharp teeth were waking up again. Hades seemed to be struggling to keep full control over the situation, but he kept most of the monsters down there. However, every now and then, another one escaped. Something was building an army.

I was desperately trying to follow their fine example, but Sven kept beating me down. I was doing better and better and then one day, it just stopped. I could no longer keep get any better. I had hit the limit Sven spoke of.

And it broke me. The illusion that I got become stronger and get out of here broke, the one thing I could still have pride in, my ability to fuck shit up, suddenly showed itself for what it was: dwarfed and pathetic compared to even the smallest, weakest god.

I thought the obvious. Kronos might be breaking me. Shutting me down, convincing me that I need him to become stronger, that only through him can I escape from this hell.

It also answered a question: why would Hades place with me with the one monster who doesn't enjoy torturing halfbloods? Because it allowed me to think my actions mattered and could one day lead to me getting out of here. Because it allowed me hope. You have to have been full once, to realize how empty you now are. Hades was allowing me to break myself.

That was when Kronos gave his final gift to me, although I had no idea how. A blade, the finest I had ever handled lay upon my prison floor, surrounded by the eerie mist I had come to associate with Kronos. It didn't have a real handle, but it was workable. I lifted the sword Backbiter for the first time, and it felt perfect. Balanced. The right length.

"Oh Sven..." I whispered gleefully.

I got my ass kicked of course. But less than usual. I was back on track.

xxx

I had found my limits, and I was surpassing them. There will be new ones. Ones I cannot surpass without completely letting go of my humanity. But I'll surpass even that.

For the first time in two years, I really looked at my body. It was less muscled than you would expect, mostly because I favoured function over form. All my clothes had been destroyed, except for my pants, which were greying, and the gloves. I did not cut the image of a hero.

I started to walk towards Sven for my daily beating.

He turned to face me and I could see something new in his eyes. Expectation. Lately, it's been like that more and more.

"No witty comment to start us off?" asked Sven.

"I'm saving that for when I beat you." I retorted, charging. Chains shot out. By now, I had realized that I could sever them and it takes about five minutes for them to grow back after I cut them off. Backbiter was a hell of a sword.

Sven brought his own sword down which I blocked and held for about two seconds. Anything to add time to the clock. I rolled down, and severed the armour around his legs. This took quite a bit longer to grow back. Sometimes even a day. I was a blur. And for the first time, it hit me...I was the earth shaker. As the chains came down I focused my will into the ground, causing Sven to lose his balance. He stumbled, and for the first time, I actually stabbed him in the leg. The chains came back out and I slashed them all.

I was winning.

And then reality decided hey, Percy's having a good time. Interference is obviously needed.

Sven roared and moved with way too much speed for something that huge. The sword came down and I blocked but still got knocked back. I parried, and he swatted me into the wall. I jumped up, grinning, the blood on the wall smeared with my own, and stabbed Sven in the leg one final time. At that point his fist connected with my skull.

"Got...you...serious..." I spat out and Sven laughed, helping me up.

"You've lasted a full minute." answered Sven. "Well done Perseus Jackson. Well done."

**Author's Notes:**

**I went through the other sections recently.**

**Almost all the stories are about people reading PJO books.**

**I have a few sarcastic remarks but it all seems so futile.**

Next chapter: Even the Gods


	6. Even the Gods

**Brothers By Rage**

**Even The Gods...**

**(Are afraid of this one)**

"Where are we?" asked Thalia. "This place seems wrong...the air smells like...nothing."

Luke laughed. "I read about this place. It's one of the god's delightful fail-safes. It's like the fields of punishments, cept all the prisoners are alive."

"Alive?" asked Annabeth. "But why would they be kept here then?"

"Because...a lot of people want to cheat death, mess with the gods or have just lived their lives in such a way that they know an eternity of damnation is awaiting them... and then, well, they sometimes try blackmail. One halfblood actually stole Poseidon's trident, and refused to give it back until they swore not to punish him when he died. So Hades dragged him down here before he died...he's being tortured in a sort of warped time...he'll never die and the gods stay immortal men and women of their word." answered Luke.

"How do you know of this? This sort of thing only works is it's a secret." said Thalia, staring with mute horror at the passage way. She could almost imagine hearing screams.

"Houdini discovered it. I found some of his old papers in the big house. It was marked for destruction but somehow, I think Mr.D missed it. Possibly because he assigned a child of Hermes to destroy them." answered Luke. He took out his sword, the blade he had been wielding for far too long. "Come on...let's see if anyone here is worth killing. Or otherwise removing from this place."

"That would save them, but probably damn us." mused Annabeth, looking at Luke worriedly.

"And then we only have to wait until more heroes like us come along." responded Luke with a grin, waltzing into the passage. This was where Luke lived, in defiance of everything he saw as wrong, no fear for himself and only hate and fury for his enemies. He was the kind of maniac who could look at immortal gods and still consider fighting them.

"I guess they kept the blood for the effect." said Annabeth, glancing at the walls, which looked like someone attempted to paint several murals with several different people's insides on them.

"There's still something wrong here..." said Thalia, trying to put her finger on what was making her panic.

"No deterioration." answered Luke. "No bacteria, not viruses...everything on earth which causes sickness, decay...any change really, is absent here. Remember, they are giving these people a sort of pseudo immortality. They can't change or age or anything."

"Everything is perfect..." said Thalia. "This blood can be thousands of years old. Everyone here...can have been here for...decades...centuries..."

Annabeth also noticed something off, but for her it was the bricks. They all looked like the walls had just been built. "Fake immortality." she breathed. "It's so perfect..."

They started walking deeper into the prison, which was somehow built into the very walls of Erebus.

"The only thing missing are the words "don't fuck with our shit" engraved on the walls." noted Thalia as they walked into the first passageway, a single torch providing a spluttering light.

Luke laughed. "First cell...hello, giant Dryad."

The Dryad stared down at Luke. It was nine feet tall, it carried two sickles and it had golden brown hair all over his body. This wasn't a happy oak tree dryad. This was the dryad of a giant, gnarled tree which was pissed at the very concept of humanity and had gone feral.

"So...who are you guarding?" Asked Luke. "Think he's worth saving?"

"You look tasty." Was all the response he received.

Thalia causally adjusted her wristwatch. Aegis appeared and the dryad took a step back. "Huh...first time a monster didn't full on panic at the sight of it." she muttered.

"How do I put this...despite my deliciousness, we are outnumbering you three to one. We are really pissed off, and in this prison we cannot die. However, we can have a hell of a time finding whether or not you can..." said Luke.

The dryad grinned and assumed a combat stance. "The man behind me known as Felix Casteraf. He was Spanish. He managed to capture three of his brothers, also children of Zeus, and threatened to kill them unless he was safe from retribution after death."

"He may not have intended to carry out the threat." suggested Annabeth.

"But what did he do to think that he might be a target of the gods after death?" asked Thalia.

The dryad grinned. "He raped and murdered two priestesses of Athena, killed two of Artemis's hunters and conspired to kill all the gods."

"He might be lying..." suggested Luke, but he looked a bit pale.

"Kinda forgot that even the gods will be disgusted by people like this?" asked Thalia, nudging him in the shoulder again.

"On my honour I swear it is the truth. I was a servant of one of the priestesses." he said, handing Annabeth his sickles. "You have her eyes."

"The mark of Athena..." said Annabeth in wonder. "These are really well made." she said, as she turned the handles and they suddenly burst into blue flames.

"I still hear her screams..." said the dryad. "Especially when it's...playtime..." He grinned back at his prisoner.

"I don't know if this is...well, completely justified or anything, but I don't really care." said Luke. "Next."

xxx

"So, so far, we've met rapists, murderers and some people who deserve to be on the earth's most evil list. And we're only half way." said Thalia. "I think this might just be a waste of time. Face it...most of the people deserve to be here."

Luke grumbled but kept going. The next prison was guarded by a silver bear. It also happened to be three meters tall and blue light was shining out of its paws.

"So...what's this prisoner's deal?" asked Luke.

"He made a move on Artemis." said the bear.

There was silence for a short while.

"Like...a rape move or causal flirting?" asked Luke.

"Causal flirting. He thought she was a half blood. He realized his mistake when she started yelling at him about eternal damnation. He was however promised previously that no punishments would await him after death. Thus the Lady Artemis took him down here herself." answered the bear.

Luke smiled. Then grinned. The burst out laughing. "Hah!" he screamed, pointing at Thalia. "In your face! This detour totally had a purpose!"

The bear looked puzzled. Which was an odd expression for a bear to have. "Any attempts to free the prisoner will be met with deadly force." it growled.

"He'll try to fight us with his bare hands." said Annabeth.

Luke, who's sword was drawn and was already charging, paused. "No Annabeth. Just no. Don't try that again until you're older."

He thought for a while. "Much older."

Thalia took out her spear and the freeing began.

xxx

"Last one." said Annabeth. They had wound up freeing three people out of twenty seven. Which really tells you a lot about humanity, and also a lot about the gods.

"Dear Zeus..." said Thalia, as she stared up at Sven. The other monsters were impressive, but he really was in a league of his own. He stared down at them.

"Guests?" he asked, his chains motioning them inside in an ironic way.

"Not really... said Luke. "We were just wondering about that prisoner behind you. What he or she did to deserve a bit of eternal punishment. Wondering whether we should start a petition. You know."

Sven grinned. "Nothing. He did nothing."

"What?" asked Luke, a little shocked. "There had to be a reason, even if it's a really bad one."

"He has stabbed Lord Hades. But that is irrelevant. He would have been doomed to this fate regardless of his actions." answered Sven, noting their weapons and then disregarding them. He wasn't really a monster. He was something more. Half way between titan and monster. He didn't really care what halfbloods did as long as it was interesting.

"So, do you think we should try and free the guy?" asked Thalia. "Really, you didn't give us a lot to go on."

"You would have to defeat me." said Sven as if that ended the matter.

"That doesn't answer the question." quipped Luke.

"I wouldn't know if freeing him will be a good thing or not. All I know is, even the gods are afraid of this one." said Sven, grinning at them again.

"Good enough for me." said Luke, taking out his sword.

"Luke, wait!" yelled Thalia. "Look at this thing! Our chances are slim to fucked! Just think what kind of person would this half blood have to be for this thing to -"

"Sven." interjected Sven.

"Okay fine. Just think how bad this person would have to be for Sven to be required as the jailer!" continued Thalia. "Seriously, have you looked at his mouth!"

"Either way." said Luke, charging. The chains shot out and grabbed all their weapons. It even removed Thalia's watch.

"Attacking me is futile." said Sven.

"Okay..." said Luke. "What if we promise to go? Will you give us our weapons back?"

"Sure." said Sven and the chains shot out again, handing them their weapons again.

"Hah! Psych!" Yelled Luke, charging again. The chains shot out again. The only difference was that Luke managed to hold on to his sword a second longer. Thalia made it to two seconds.

"Well...this is awkward." said Luke, looking at his empty hands.

"Give it up Luke. This thing is ridiculous. That means what it's guarding must be equally ridiculous." said Thalia.

"Thalia is right." said Annabeth. "We can't beat this thing. We can't even last seconds against it."

"Thalia? Luke?" said Sven, wonderingly. "Do you possibly know a Percy Jackson?"

"Yeah?" answered Luke, although Annabeth gasped, realizing the implications.

"Well, I guess he says hi." said Sven, pointing behind him.

All three of the half bloods stood. It was the sort of defiance a mortal has against a god. You know you're going to die. You know you don't stand a chance against the opponent who is stronger, more experienced and has divine powers. But, even if it's only for a second, despite it having thousands of yours of experience to the contrary, you'll make the god worry that it was the one who was going to die.

"Well, this changes some things." mused Luke. "But still, you're gonna die."

"You're unarmed, outmatched and in my territory. Yet you're making threats." observed Sven. "I almost admire you. Or should it be pity?" He chuckled. "This is what you call heroism right?"

"It think it has emotions." said Thalia, wondering vaguely just what the hell they were going to do.

"Still...at least it's three on one." said Annabeth, trying to remain positive. She took out her baseball cap.

"Four." came a voice from behind Sven, wearing only grey pants and gloves.

"Ah...yes, I probably should have chained him up." said Sven. "But really, every hero who has ever seen me has died in the following ten minutes. I'd hate to damage that record."

"Did any of them spend roughly two years training under you?" asked Percy, stepping out of the shadows. Annabeth and Thalia looked teary eyed. Even Luke's eyes looked pretty damn moist.

Moist.

Moist.

If that word was a weapon, even Sven would be in trouble.

"You look good." commented Thalia, ignoring the scars and odd clothes.

"Better actually." said Percy. "Healing and growing is kind of warped here. Most of these scars should have faded a long time ago."

"And the gloves? Is that some sort of statement?" asked Luke, as if the past two years hadn't happened. The group was whole again. It really could be as if the past two years hadn't happened. Ducking underneath Sven's legs, Percy rolled out, two daggers in his hands. Both of Stygian Iron. He handed one to Luke and one to Annabeth.

"I only have those two, my sword and this." he said, throwing Thalia a spear.

"It belonged to the girl who used to occupy the cell. No idea how good it is."

"Well, you're rearmed and your number advantage is greater. Tell me Perseus, do you truly think this will make a difference? "asked Sven, chains poised to strike.

"Well you weren't a bad jailer. So I apologise for how badly we're going to beat you right now." said Percy, putting his sword, or rather blade into his hand. "Attack the chains. Grab them from the sides. He regenerates them, but it takes about five minutes. We'll have to finish him in roughly that amount of time."

"Good luck." said Sven.

"You too." replied Percy.

And then all chain covered hell broke loose.

xxx

It was quite possibly the bloodiest 4 minutes and 15 seconds of battle ever.

And that's saying something.

Sven began his usual battle style, chains shooting out and attempting to disarm us. I managed to cut the two coming for me and grabbed one of those going for Luke, slicing open my hand. The left one, so it wouldn't bother me for long.

Annabeth went invisible, which Sven did not really like but gave us a pretty big advantage. He sent chains everywhere around his feet, making it impossible for Annabeth to get near his legs but also reducing his own ability to do anything to us.

Thalia managed to deflect the chains coming towards he with her spear, but seeing as spear are more made for stabbing than for slashing, she was about as useful as a rational argument on the internet. She was also getting beaten back.

Sven got annoyed and sent al his chains towards me, forming a spiky net around me and Luke, abandoning his leg defences, probably figuring the icy armour would protect him.

Mistake one. In seconds, Annabeth slashed the three chains which we attached to his legs and then got away before the chains could return. Sven roared, really starting to enjoy this. I was entertaining but I never really gave him this much of a challenge.

He refocused the net, but me and Luke had taken enough of the chains out so that we could swerve and dodge a bit. But we were still disarmed in a few seconds. Two chains shot out and turned, the spikes slashing up my legs and tripping me.

And then Thalia stuck her spear all the way through Sven's leg. Who looked down at it and laughed. He stopped when he realized I had been hiding one ability the whole time. I managed to make his icy armour melt. He was officially a seven meters long conductor. Thalia sent a few thousand volts all the way through the spear and probably through most of Sven. Annabeth then stabbed Sven a few times in the legs (I'm guessing, seeing as wounds randomly appeared there.) However, he didn't care. He picked Thalia up with the remaining Chains and lifted her up to his mouth.

Bad place to be. Nothing, NOTHING looks as scary as Sven's teeth.

Me and Luke looked at each other, and did something really heroic( that's halfblood speak for stupid.) He pick me up and threw me hard towards Sven's midriff, where I grabbed and ripped one of the chains off Thalia. Specifically the chain holding her right hand.

Before he could react, Thalia grabbed his tongue and shocked the living shit out of him. Seriously...this was Pikachu in Dragonite's mouth level of attack...AND a critical hit at the same time. Sven shook and fell down, Thalia kicking herself off his body and flying backwards. Hurriedly, I grabbed Backbiter from one of the chains and ran towards his neck.

I raised the sword. "Thanks..." I muttered, knowing full well what Sven was capable of. Hint: It's a LOT more than this.

"Better not...tell Hades..." he said, lying on the floor. He wasn't getting up. But still, the chains. The demon. The sort of okay companion for two years.

"Sorry about your record." I said, and swung.

"There are more important things." he answered, and my jailer was no more.

Everything disappeared of the giant monster, except for a single length of chain.

"Who wants the spoils?" I asked, numbly, surprised at how sad I sounded.

Wordlessly, Luke took the chain and looped it around his body like a belt.

"Was he...your uh...was he good?" asked Annabeth hesitantly.

"By monster standards...he was Mother Theresa and Gandhi rolled into one. By human standards he was a pretty cool guy." I answered.

They all picked up their weapons and we rearmed.

"We seriously need to get Percy some new clothes." commented Thalia, staring at my outfit, which consisted of grey pants and black gloves. In my defence, it was very popular with Sven, who was pretty much the only one I've been dressing for the past two years.

"Well, first vengeance. Then accessorizing." I replied, sliding my daggers into my pocket.

"Yeah..." said Luke, swirling his arms and looking forward again. With a whole lot of cropped up pissed offness there with him. "There's a certain Lord of the Dead I'm going to have a long conversation with."

"With some stabbing?" I asked hopefully.

Thalia stared at me. "Please tell me that isn't what you tried last time."

xxx

Luke gave me his jacket, letting me appear slightly more normal. For a second I thought Thalia might offer me her shirt, but that might just have been my usual optimism.

"So...I've been stuck with a demon in a surprisingly roomy cell...how have your past two years been?" I asked, noting that as we walked through the Underworld, unspeakable punishments being inflicted at all sides and lots of people just standing in a field of corn, the only thing that could possibly save us from melancholy was small talk.

"Not bad. I saw a movie. Got a soda. Ate lunch." answered Luke.

"It's been okay." replied Annabeth, rolling her eyes at Luke. "You might even like camp half blood."

We had to pull of the main road for a while as a group off skeletons led by Charon went waltzing passed us. "Have to find the damn brats...they should have been escorted from the gates to the palace to Tartarus...no detours...he specifically said not detours...and why did no one seal that entrance?"

Well, that was incredibly convenient that they happened to pass us just as he began muttering about what he was doing and how it affects us.

"I'm having some doubts about seeing Hades before I actually escape the underworld." I said, noting that there was some really angry howling going on.

"We'll take that chance." answered Luke, striding boldly as I realised that I had developed a disturbing fear of gods. "Besides, I'm just going to use some choice words, and then we stride out."

"We should make your escape official..." muttered Annabeth, and surprisingly I was the sanest one even after the two years in hell.

"Okay...well you are off being diplomatic, I'll run like fuck in...uh, which direction leads to out of here?" I asked.

"He can't keep you here after we have fetched you. You didn't eat anything or take anything from the underworld right?" asked Annabeth.

I looked down at my left hand. They also looked at my left hand and there was a general "oh shit" expression. Me telling them to relax, it's not from the underworld, it's from the most evil titan of all time...probably won't help at all.

"Percy...where did you get that hand?" asked Thalia quietly.

Think fast!

Hey, that actually worked.

"It's a side effect of the fake immortality thing." I replied. "See, the prisoners have to regenerate the whole time, otherwise the tortures have to be quite...plain."

They stared at me in a sort of mute horror.

"Hey, it wasn't willingly. That was the whole point right? Persephone ate the pomegranate willingly right?"

"He might be right..." commented Annabeth. "But we should probably get a backup plan , just in case."

"No time." answered Luke, dreading the very concept of tactics.

"We can just hide for a while and-"

"No time!" repeated Luke, more forcefully, and we started following the skeletons towards the palace of the Lord of the Dead.

Gothic architecture. That's all I'm going to say about the palace. That and that I never want to remember it.

xxx

Hades was slunk into his throne of bones. All three meters of him. His right hand was idly circling the armrest of his throne, drawing patterns of black fire.

He grinned at the three of us ,making silencing motions when Luke attempted to speak. Later I realized he had actually been unable to speak, which explained a hell of a lot and why we had to sit through a monologue instead of being chased out during a dialogue.

"So...not one of you died and the only person I successfully captured has just been freed. And now those delightful Ancient Laws, capitalized through sheer annoyance value, prevent me from keeping the fool down here where at the very least he won't doom everything. And I am already under an oath not to strike him down until he is at least 15."

Several skeleton warriors, marines, red coats and cossacks surrounded us.

"And now, I have a very annoying problem. You see, I'm used to having an excellent plan to deal with almost every eventuality...if it wasn't for Luke being a paranoid cretin and investigating the underworld, he would never have figured out where Percy was kept. As is...I have only been aware of his escape for about...ah, four minutes, Charon? Because you tried to solve it yourself instead of informing me immediately?" He shot a murderous glance at Chiron, who's clothes seemed to wilt from the sheer force of it. "And while I am quick witted, I feel we can all agree that is not enough time to figure out something worthy of my brilliance. Tea anyone?"

A skeletal waiter had appeared out of nowhere pushing a trolley with several pots of tea and confectionery treats.

"Percy no!" yelled Annabeth.

Huh. It turns out people really think I'm that dumb. And that fact that after two years of not eating or drinking my body was already reaching for two crumpets meant _nothing._

"Well, it was worth a shot." sighed Hades. "Go ahead to Tarturus, and take the brat with you. He might increase the chances of you actually getting out of there with some brain function left. But I warn you..." Black fire surrounded him, wind was swirling, we and the skeletons had to take several steps back. The cracks under his composure was showing like the knockoffedness of Charon's suit.(Cheap ass mofo.)

"You halfbloods may think I'm evil. And you would be spot on. But I'm not here to be right or wrong. I'm here to exist forever. You think you would know better how this world should be run, when I have been here for so long that your very life is mere minutes compared to mine?" He laughed and looked at me and then Thalia.

"Remember kids, this really isn't about the gods being good or evil. This is about the alternative to gods being titans. Now go. Before I start breaking my oath."

xxx

So...Tartarus. Basically a huge fucking chasm.

"Just...how did you plan us to survive this at all?" asked Thalia, staring into the seemingly endless blackness.

"Honestly...I did not plan at all." answered Luke, diving into the chasm.

The three of us stood in complete silence for a while.

"Good enough for me." I said hollowly, hoping that all the things thrown down there will have formed some sort of mattress of evil or something. I dived in to, and managed to hear Thalia saying "Meh" and following us.

Now...the sensation of falling into perpetual darkness is a very overrated one. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm pretty sure Luke knew something we didn't, I'm sure I'd still have been pretty indifferent.

Yeah, I'm that hardcore.

"Umph!" Stupid air escaping due to the impact. "What the hell did I hit?" I asked, blearily standing up and noting that Luke was grinning at me, having affixed Sven's chain around his waist as a belt.

"What the hell?" asked Thalia, joining us.

"Where are we and why didn't I die while getting here?" asked Annabeth.

"You hit the floor." said Luke slowly. "The sentient and malicious yet badly groomed floor." He pointed at the walls, which were made out of … screams? What the hell? There were faces moving everywhere, claws formed out of the walls and eyes were looking at us from all angles.

"It's essence...the essence of monsters who are trying to reform..." whispered Thalia, ripping a piece off, which jumped out of her hand and hurriedly rejoined the mass.

"Yeah...ever wondered what excuse you can use for humanity being a bunch of evil fucks? Here it is!" said Luke, spreading his arms out. "This is as far as Houdini came. He intended to mimic the regenerating qualities of the mass to gain immortality. Or something. I skipped over the boring bits.I think it drove him insane, because from that point onwards he never wrote about our world again."

"I can see why." said Annabeth nauseously. The part of the wall nearest to her had formed the face of a several Hydra, before being ripped apart. "The essences...they are trying to find their own parts...but they can't..."

I looked around a bit and noticed the minotaur's hoof moving around before it was ripped apart. "More importantly, why is everything so damn pink?"

"It looks orange to me..." noted Thalia disinterestedly.

"Green." added Annabeth.

"Not good..." muttered Luke. "It's targeting each of us differently...we have about 15 minutes before insanity strikes. Move fast. Remember, these are monsters...not exactly whole ones, but still."

"You could have mentioned that _before _we jumped into the pit of doom!" yelled Thalia, running after him.

The tunnel split into seven different passages. "Kronos...Oranos...Reia...Gaia...the rest are split up in random places. Check the main ones." said Luke, pointing at each entrance in turn.

I ran into Reia's tunnel, noting the pink essence ended and the screaming sounded more and more like the wind.

In a few minutes I was at the end of the empty tunnel...then again, I have no idea how a prison for a titan should look, but I'm guessing it isn't empty. And I'm guessing the glaring hole in wall was also a bit of a hint at what happened here.

"Fucktacular." I muttered, walking back, my rage building for no real reason.

"Most of them are missing..." said Luke angrily, back at the crossroads, or rather cross tunnels. "But not Kronos...it's still there. Still whispering at me."

"It's Oranos who is leading this." said Thalia, joining us. "There was a throne built in his tunnel...there were books, scrolls...he had been regenerated for...who knows how long...waiting until we were born so that he could fulfil the prophecy."

"Why didn't Hades come and check here?" I asked, noting that some large snakes were slithering around in one of the tunnels. There was another one which seemed to have cages made from Celestial bronze. And lots of screaming.

"They blocked him." answered Luke. "He hasn't been able to enter here for years." He was sweating a lot and appeared nervous. His head kept twitching. He started walking towards the tunnel, motioning for us to follow him.

"Hey..." said Annabeth, pointing down the tunnel with the snakes. "That's where the worst monsters are imprisoned right? So...if we...".

Yay. And now the puking starts. I don't know exactly how this insanity thing works, but it appears to affect you faster based on how smart you are.

And I'm the only one who's not affected so far.

Fuck you too Tartarus.

"Come on!" yelled Luke, grabbing her, and running into the tunnel. Until I kicked his legs out from under him.

He turned and stared at me, not understanding.

"You're leading us deeper into monsterville." I clarified, holding Thalia back, who started to mutter in weird syllables.

"To the exit the monsters use...look!" he said, pointing at the walls. "We have to follow the essence! They want to leave! As soon as they reform, they use this exit created by Kaos itself!"

"These walls have no essence on them..." I began slowly, not liking the conclusion my mind was making.

If I closed my left eye there was no essence of the walls and there were snakes hungrily staring at us.

If I closed my right eye, there was essence everywhere and the snakes disappeared.

I was the only one who could still see what was really there, courtesy of Kronos.

"Percy, we have to go!" yelled Luke, grabbing Annabeth and running full pelt towards the snakes. Luckily, his panic had slowed him and I managed to push him into the wall.

"Shut up! You can't fucking see! This thing has your mind! Let me get us out!" I yelled, praying that I would break through the Luke, who currently somewhere behind his own eyes, somewhere inside the mist this...place had inserted into his head.

"I trust you." he said instantly, and closed his eyes. Nice. Would probably buy us some time.

"Close your eyes too guys." However, Annabeth was now out cold and Thalia was still muttering, but she nodded and closed her eyes. Unceremoniously I slung Annabeth across Luke's shoulders.

I grabbed Thalia and Luke's hands started leading them out, keeping my left eye closed at all times.

The essence wants out...where is out? I noticed that the claws, faces and paws were reforming and grabbing at us...or reforming while moving in a certain direction. I started moving down that tunnel. Now, you'd think the walls would start attacking us. And they would: if they could work together. However each monster wanted the glory of killing us to itself. One claw would jump at us, only to be blocked by the jaw of a half reformed hellhound. It was like Resident Evil except the zombies were retarded. More so than usual.

I noticed that Thalia wasn't actually muttering randomly but repeating some set phrases over and over again. Unlike Luke she kept her focus and managed to help me when the essence attacked. And then was repelled by itself. Eventually though, she stopped. Her mind was slipping.

There are many things I don't want to remember. Most of them involve me bleeding a lot and almost dying. Heck, at one point in this fucked up tale I'll literally be puking up my own organs.

But this...this was the worst for me. Not the uncertainty. Not the monsters almost completely reforming and trying to grab me, half formed bodies jumping at me, some way too human to be pleasant. Not even the walls of eyes which reformed and kept bleeding out around me. Not the whispers and things grabbing me.

It was the little fact that if I fell, we all die. I hate being the last one standing. Kinda worse to be the last one sane.

At last, after an eternity of two minutes, I reached a light which repelled the essence, which swarmed around it, repeatedly trying to get out.

A single hole in the wall.

I jumped.

xxx

A parking lot. The exit to Tartarus winds up in a parking lot. I managed to stand upright and keep people away until Thalia could stand as well. At that point, I gave and hit the floor. After a while, Annabeth woke up and Luke stood. For a long while none of us spoke or even tried to move. They mentioned some random things about camp, probably to cheer me up. The bit about Thalia being a tree stuck in my head though.

After a bit Luke dragged us into a generic fast food place and got us some food. By got I probably mean steal but I never know with Luke.

We were all tired and staring at nothing but something began bothering me.

Not how easy it was to escape. Relatively.

Not how screwed I was when we got to camp.

Just...a question about age.

"Wait...Thalia...there was a bit less than two years difference between our ages when we started travelling right?" I asked.

"Yeah." answered Thalia, not really getting it.

"And you didn't really age for the past two years in your...stasis right?" I continued. I was rewarded by Annabeth gasping and Luke punching the wall. We had all hit my conclusion.

"So who is going to hit 16 first?" asked Thalia.

"Me!" said Luke sarcastically. "Oh wait..."

**Author's Notes:**

**To answer, this isn't a love story and there won't be any pairings. And apologies for the grammar in the beginning...my English skillz have gotten weak.**

**The trouble with this story is I started by writing the ending...**

**Next Chapter: Unkillable Monster**


	7. Unkillable Monster

**Brothers By Rage**

**Unkillable Monster**

"So." I began, as we strolled back into L.A. How are we going to get to this camp of yours?"

"We're going to fly." said Thalia simply. "We've already got tickets. And we'll find some mortal who doesn't urgently have to fly to New York to give him yours."

"No." I began.

"No." I repeated.

"HELL NO!" I reiterated.

"Zeus hates me guys...like, full on hates me. He really, REALLY, doesn't like my style. If I go into the sky...he'll blow me out of it." I said, trying to appear less scared about it. Seriously, if Zeus okay'd the whole imprison me forever thing, coupled with the fact that I'm the son of his sort of rival who could steal the prophecy away from his daughter...he will probably be fucking trigger happy the second I hit the sky.

"Relax. He won't blow a plane out of the air with Thalia in it." said Annabeth.

"Fine...but I sit next to her." I said.

xxx

"Percy, I thought you were going to sit next to me. Not cower in the foetal position." said Thalia through thinned lips. Sure...maybe I was wrapped up as small as I could be and trying to use Thalia as a shield...but electrocuted in a plane?.Ever.

"But...it minimizes the angle at which he can hit me with lightning and not you! " I said, in a much more manly way than you would think possible for someone in the foetal position.

"He's not exactly the best seating partner either." said Annabeth, glaring at Luke, who was muttering at the sky.

"Come at me bro...you know you want to...I'm in the sky...Your sky...bring it..." muttered Luke. "You can't handle this!" He said, slapping his chest twice. "Yeah..."

Annabeth hoped the flight attendant would stop staring. "I think his nerves are shot. He really took a gamble to get you out of the tree. And our Tartarus detour didn't really help either."

Thalia nodded. "These two are going to get themselves killed. And until they do they are going to get more and more...blasphemous I guess. They're actually lucky that Oranos is rising."

"Yeah. It makes them more valuable. But if Oranos is neutralised..." said Annabeth, the words trailing off uselessly.

"I don't think these two have ever made long term plans. Ever." said Thalia.

xxx

We got off the plane. I literally jumped with joy as I was back safely on the ground...my old friend. Luke was also badly shaken. He did what he had to do, and now there would be a price. Probably a hefty one of the eternal variety. Involving scorpions.

"Next time...we go on a boat." I said.

"Do you think your dad won't have an issue with me then?" Thalia asked, eyebrow raised.

"I'll ask him nicely. Maybe sacrifice some candy. He loves candy." I said, still not really feeling capable of doing whole sentences.

Annabeth took out a drachma and we were in a taxi with the three fates. They were annoying and I responded in kind.

Soon, everything ever will want to kill me.

xxx

We arrived at Camp Half Blood which appeared to be a strawberry farm or something. And everyone wore orange shirts. I could already predict that I was going to be problematic. And clothed in black and various shades of grey.

"So where do we live in this camp?" I asked, hoping I could at least stay with my friends.

"We all have a cabin according to our divine parent." said Annabeth. "Yours is cabin three."

"So...some more isolation and living by myself. Maybe I should rename myself fate's bitch? Or maybe monster chewtoy?" I said, sounding a lot more bitter than I realized. Well, there were definitely cabins, and seeing as they all fit a theme it was pretty obvious which one belonged to the children of which god. Vines would be Dionysus, the one with all the smoke would be Hephaestus. The one out of which the huge bitch is walking towards me, flanked by some evolutionary rejects would probably be Ares.

"New recruit?" asked the huge girl, grinning at me. "Shouldn't you guys go and report to Chiron? We'll help orientate the little guy."

Okay...obviously, my previous homicidal behaviour, although very fun, will now have to be kept in check. This does not bode well for my sanity. And it will probably also be bad for people who like their limbs attached to their bodies.

"Calm down Clarisse." sighed Annabeth. "We already Iris messaged Chiron the most important details."

"Still, this guy looks like he needs some TLC. Look how scruffy his hair is." she said, ruffling my hair. I don't know why but I feel degraded.

"We should actually." said Thalia. "Besides, Percy can handle himself."

Annabeth looked nervous, but Thalia and Luke seemed rather to enjoy the idea. They must really not like this girl. "Oh a tough guy huh? Big three material?" snorted Clarisse, and her buddies behind her laughed. It must suck, being normal. Sure, you have more friends but you have to laugh at a lot of subhumor.

"Yeah, you guys go ahead." I said, reaching for my sword, before realising I probably wouldn't need it. "I'll come talk to the director in a while. Just as long as they don't find out about my hydrophobia."

"What's that?" asked Clarisse, looking confused.

"He's scared of water." said one of the girls to her left. Huh. I thought Annabeth would have to clarify that for them.

"We'll be running along." said Thalia, pushing Luke and Annabeth away.

"No guys! They know my weakness!"

And so, Clarisse dragged me to the river where she pretended several times to throw me in, and then...

xxx

"Percy Jackson?" said Chiron in wonder. "And he survived? In Tartarus?"

"Well, he is alive, so yeah." said Luke. "Anyway, it appears that at least five titans are missing. Also, a lot of monsters Hades thought were in there weren't any more. But one other thing...Kronos' consciousness is still down there...it's Oranos who's up here, and it's him who gathered the considerable army."

"That is troubling." said Mr.D "I know grandfather was bad...but Oranos was apparently a lot more, sane, if I could put it like that. He won't be rash. He won't strike until he can win. We'll have to chip away at his forces, a guerrilla campaign, and then strike him down." He glanced at the river. "Two pair, 7's high." he smirked.

"Yeah...pretty much." agreed Luke. "Full house, Jacks over 9's."

Mr.D looked like he was seriously considering some smiting. "So...where is this Jefferson boy you talked about?"

Suddenly several screams of horror and pain came from the river.

"The river." said Thalia, Annabeth and Luke at the same time.

"Does he know how to play poker?" asked Mr.D

"Not very well." answered Luke. "Then bring him in."

xxx

So...Dionysus. Chiron. Argus. Quite a nice group this camp's got. Heck, we might actually be safe here.

"So...you're Peter Johnson aren't you?" asked Dionysus.

"Nah. Percy Jackson." I answered, glancing at my cards and knocking.

"Well, Pocahontas, I am in a bit of a pickle at the moment. You see, there are quite a lot of people who want you dead." said Mr.D, raising the stakes.

"And by people you mean gods." I said, calling. The others were pretty quite. Guess this guy was actually pretty important or something. They had all folded already, so I guess this whole situation had gone all metaphorical on me.

"Yes, indeed. You will have to prove yourself. Perhaps go on a quest that is pretty much suicidal. You know...just show some camp spirit." He said, raising again.

"I guess, I accept." I said, smiling at the guy and going all in.

"Pfft. You will regret that choice." said Mr.D, folding his cards in, and grabbing my is very bad manners and you should never do it. Especially not in a casino.

"You want all on a high card? The high card being a nine?" asked Mr.D , looking at me with a mixture of respect and loathing.

"In this life, you have to be able to go all in on absolutely nothing." I answered, waiting for the next hand to be dealt. Which I lost, when he called me on the basis that my all over strategy was "go all in".

Try it online sometime. Preferably with your parents credit cards.

xxx

"So...what is the deal with this capture the flag thing?" I asked. Currently, there was an alliance between the Hermes, Athena, Apollo and Zeus cabins...as my dad hadn't claimed me yet, I was with the Hermes cabin. Nice guys, but I'm glad I didn't have any valuables to leave in the cabin.

"Builds camp spirit. Allows casual maiming." supplied Luke. "Or something anyway."

"So...how do our chances look?" I asked.

"Well, the entire Ares cabin wants you dead. They are pretty much the biggest threat on the other side." said Luke. "Just stick to the river and take em out. We'll handle the rest."

"Do you seriously think they'll be dumb enough to attack me near the river again?" I asked in disbelief.

"You obviously hadn't been here very long." replied Luke.

xxx

Beat up some Ares guys, got claimed, general awe. Had dinner, realized I do care about seating arrangements. But really, what I wanted was some clothes of my own so it didn't look so ridiculous that I always wear gloves. The long jackets and sweaters I wore made me warm, but I guess I can take more heat than your average demigod. There was some varied training and things, but mostly I just worked out and sparred with Luke and Thalia.

Annabeth tried to force knowledge into my head but despite her invisibility , I was getting quite good at avoiding her.

And I had to wrestle with the Clarisse girl every now and then. She made excellent use of the fact that there was no river close to the wrestling mat. Luke and Thalia laughing at me the whole time didn't exactly increase the fun either. Annabeth just sighed. Amazingly, she was better at this than me, as she used skill as opposed to "overpowering everything with brute force like you keep trying to do seaweed brain". I took this as her way of telling me to increase my brute force, which I did, working myself to exhaustion every few days, and stealing nectar and ambrosia to stop the muscle degradation from setting in.

But like all mediocre things this had to come to an end and I was soon charged with a quest to prove my loyalty or abilities and probably to provide the gods with cheap entertainment. Despite the fact that it was pretty...well, bland quest, all the cabin heads were called together for the discussion.

"So...Percy, you will steal some apples from the immortal Dragon Ladon. We do not care how you get them. Just do." said Mr.D, already dealing everyone except Annabeth and Luke into the poker game.

"In short, you're going to be performing play number 4. You'll be playing the hero, which has previously been played by such greats such as Hercules, Davin and Jeff. Never heard of the last two? Well, those guys also didn't really do it for a reason, more like for a divine whim. " said Luke, giving me a friendly thumbs up.

"I'm confused...shouldn't there be a speech from the oracle and some dramatic foreshadowing that someone is going to die?" I asked.

"Usually...but you do not seek at the moment...you are merely sent..." said Mr.D, knocking.

"Okay...and how many people am I allowed to take with me?" I asked, not really caring.

"Two." said Chiron. "There is power in three. Three furies, three chief gods, three-"

"Yeah, yeah. Annabeth. And how about..."

"Not it." said Luke and Thalia at the same time.

"Come on...I know this will be boring, but come on. It won't be that incredibly boring." I said, not really believing it myself.

"Choose one of the other campers Percy...some of these people are so two dimensional it's not even funny. Give them a chance to shine." said Thalia.

"Um...that's because you never spend any time with them." commented Annabeth.

"I've made my choice and I stand by it." replied Thalia.

"We'll take a tree nymph." I said.

"But...they can't get more than 10 meters away from one of their trees..." said Grover.

"I have faith in him. Her. It." I said, not really caring any more. "Let's just go."

"Go with them Grover." commanded Mr.D boredly. "And also, take this." He added, throwing me a pen. Oh great. I'm going to go fight a dragon with stationary. This will not end well.

Oooooohhhhh! The pen is also a sword!

xxx

We were taking the bus down to San Francisco, due to the whole "Zeus wants to blow me out of the sky" thing. Surprisingly, probably because the titan army and indeed all the gods didn't really care what we were doing, but we were making very good time.

"So...you arrived about thirty minutes after I got kidnapped and then didn't call for back up leading to Thalia getting turned into a pine tree?" I asked Grover, who I didn't really care for at the moment. He fidgeted nervously.

"Well, see, you were moving around very fast and there was no way that there was supposed to be that many monsters moving around and-" I laughed.

"Chill bro. There was nothing anyone could do. Fate, destiny and in general, the world, really really has it in for us. Sorry about getting you dragged into this. Knowing my luck, we are probably going to explode in...five...four...three...two...one..." And absolutely nothing happened. "Oh well...guess we're safe for a while." And we actually were almost there before two of the kindly ones came and blew up our bus. But it wasn't really to stop us. They just didn't like me. Well, admittedly there were some decent attempts at murdering moi, and they were met by extremely effective self defence, but it wasn't what I call proper thwarting.

"We can probably take a taxi now..." said Annabeth, as carnage unfolded around us.

"Yeah..." I replied, not really feeling it. But we were making good time. Way too good time.

An answer to why fate let up for a while was awaiting us at the foot of the mountain.

xxx

About 6 foot 8. Muscled all over. And a warhammer.

"So...a son of Ares I guess..." I said, staring up at the huge guy. "You've been sent to help? I know our dads get along very well, but honestly, I didn't even ask for help. The only thing I've been praying for is-"

"Boy, you have no idea how many things want you dead. Gods, titans, monsters...even some concerned priests. See, normally, I wouldn't pick up a bounty on someone like you. Son of Poseidon. No amount of gold here is worth the fields...but, you pissed off a lot of people boy. Hades, Zeus, Ares..." I took it in.

"So...I'm guessing you're working for Oranos. Maybe you think Hades or Zeus will also send some really rare rocks your way. And you're convinced that no one will care if you brutally kill me. And it's you who made this trip so safe for me, wasn't it? Couldn't let some monster eat your bounty. Well, guess I should be thanking you. You made this trip...even more boring than it had to be, yet less annoying." I took out Riptide and Backbiter. "So if you fuck off now, I'll let you live. Otherwise, you'll get to find out real soon how many gods hate you."

The guy stared at me for a few seconds, looking shocked. Then he started laughing. "Now I get it why all those gods want yeh dead. Jeez boy, you just don't know when to quit or to back down huh? Well, here's a quick course: when your opponent is more skilled, stronger and better armed than you, it's better to back the fuck down." He snarled, and put his warhammer into both his hands.

Grover grabbed my shirt nervously. "Seriously Percy, this guy is at least 22. He must have stayed alive through all sorts of monsters and stuff. It might be better to try and buy him off."

"Yeah...he only cares about money..." said Annabeth, but I could see she was reaching the same conclusion as me.

"So, you told him we have money. Now he can kill us, rob us _and_ cash in on the bounty." I told Grover, who fidgeted nervously.

"Yeah...I'll probably have to search the girl for all of it." he said, licking his lips, probably attempting to freak Annabeth out. Or worse, arouse her.

"It happened..." I yelled joyously. "Bro..you just fucked up. You have no idea how badly you fucked up...cause you just convinced the only person here for whom I would stop beating you into a very thin paste, to actually encourage me and recommend patterns."

He looked confused.

Then I charged and he got it.

Now, this guy was many things, but he wasn't a liar and he definitely wasn't bad at fighting. It's a good thing we are both heavy fighters and fight a bit slower than most people. I might even have lost if the eye of Kronos didn't give me such an huge advantage. If the my opponent is faster than me, the eye is pretty much useless. The same speed or slower...and I couldn't really lose.

Unfortunately , that pesky larger body and superior strength were giving me a spot of bother. Specifically it gave me a blow to the rips and some nice cracking sounds. I've had worse. And I've only just started.

He swung the hammer in a semicircle forcing me to jump up and over it. In one quick movement my foot was in his face. He swung again but I managed to stab him right through his leg with Riptide and blocked his hammer with Backbiter. Which made my right hand feel like it was getting curb stomped(which didn't literally happen to it) and his leg feel like it was being stabbed(which really did happen to it).

He stared down at his bleeding leg in disbelief. "Holy shit boy...you actually think you can do this huh? And reality ain't caught up and made yah dead yet?" He laughed, probably for my benefit, as there wasn't really anything funny about getting mutilated by a grinning 14 year old.

"You know, if you run fast I probably won't think you're important enough to follow and kill." I answered, completely for his benefit.

Yay. Brainless, angry charge.

In a comedy movie, with the bully vs adorable yet miss understood and hated by everyone whoever met him yet loved by the audience protagonist fight scene, this would be followed by character two tripping character one to mild laughter and the sound of intelligent people having aneurysms.

In this scene, it was followed by me tripping the guy.

Across his midsection.

With my swords.

Hilarious.

xxx

"So...the tree is up there?" I asked, looking up at the misty mountain(not the one in LOTR).

"Yeah. But it's protected by Ladon, one of the most powerful dragons ever!" said Grover. "No Hero has ever defeated it! Not even Hercules!"

"Most people think up a way to steal the apples with stealth or cunning." added Annabeth. "You're welcome to use my baseball cap if you-"

"You're suggesting a course of action which requires me to think?" I cut her off. "Clearly you've formed a bad perception of my personality during my little holiday in hell."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm suggesting the course of action which allows me to walk home with you, instead of carrying back your corpse." I paused for a second.

"Do I even have a shroud?"

"I'll ask Luke to steal you one." she answered sarcastically. "Seriously, let me help you with this."

I thought for a while. "If I start puking blood, drag me out. Otherwise, I can still fight." I had looted the armour of the Ares guy, and despite having two rather fetching slash wounds, would probably help a bit against the dragon. I managed to get it on, and luckily the difference in size meant that the slash holes were across my legs. I walked into the garden, shaking my head irritably and flipping off those four women things that were glaring at me. They started yelling something at me, which probably could be summarised as "we'll call Ladon you delicious cuddlemuffin!" without them admitting they find me delicious. Or a cuddlemuffin.

Unfortunately, it seems Ladon does not need encouragement. See, Ladon had to do dragon things sometimes. Excretive dragon things. And doing them near the sacred tree was probably banned in the first few centuries. As it was, I could walk very close to the tree, scratching my head and wondering where the hell it was. At that point Annabeth and Grover were yelling something like "steal and run!". Or something involving apples anyway. We can get them after I kill the dragon. Woah.

Fast. Ever seen the way a black mamba moves? It looked like it's literally shooting itself across the sands. This thing moved like that, ramming into my chest, sending me flying back down the mountain. It then stood a short distance away from, laughing at me. Or at least doing some smoke snorting or other things which I'm going to interpret as laughing. And as an excuse to kill this endangered species. It then leaped again, before I could react. And attempted to remove my midsection with its teeth. Luckily the armour got in the way, but I was still winded. I brought both daggers down towards its head and it pulled away, probably thinking there was no way I would be stupid enough to go near its tree now.

So...not even Hercules could fight this thing directly. And this stupid armour I have on was actually stupid...I have never used it before.

I stroked the armour which was, currently, the only reason my insides weren't Ladon's latest meal. I loosened the clips and started removing it.

"Percy! What the hell are you doing?" screamed Annabeth. Ah. So much for not drawing off my focus.

"I want to be able to run away fast." I retorted, removing even my shirt. But not the left glove.

"Can you understand human speech?" I asked the dragon, who roared in response. Oh well...maybe it just rages the whole damn time. Guess I'll try ancient Greek. "We're about to play a game I've gotten pretty good at recently...it's called just how immortal are you really? I warn you, several previous contestants found out that the answer might be a mystery considering how dead they were."

In response, the dragon jumped up from its tree, and lunged at me with quite annoying speed for something that large. I brought my two daggers up at the last instant, just as the mouth opened.

And now both my daggers are stuck inside the mouth of a really pissed off dragon who's teeth make them seem as harmless as UN peace troops. To anyone who isn't an innocent civilian anyway.

And I'm still holding on to them...

With a fucked up powerful lurch the thing threw me over its head and charged me again. I plucked out Riptide and swung as hard I could.

I barely scratched its skin.

"Huh..." I said, noticing where he threw me. "You really don't like being away from this tree do you?"

Roar. Lame response. Mine, which was to slash him again, wasn't much better.

Wings. The thing has wings.

I noted that as it flew above me and kicked me in the face.

For the first time in my life, I just really didn't want to fight. Sure, when I stabbed Hades I knew I was damning myself but I refused to let anyone, even someone a million times stronger than me, mess with me like that.

But this thing...I guess it's harder to work up the defiant hate to match it. What's the point of defying an animal? It's like your sandwich suddenly yelling at you. You're going to eat it anyway, but still...you're not going to feel satisfied. Full maybe, but not satisfied.

"I am no match for you..." I said, standing up, tasting the blood flowing from my (probably) broken nose into my mouth. Considering how my face felt, that blood could have come from anywhere.

Ladon seemingly roared in agreement.

"However, I never let stuff like that stop me." I pulled off the left hand glove and hoped Annabeth couldn't see the black and red skin from this distance. "Welcome to the end of your life. I've had an extended sneak peak of the afterlife, and trust me, it doesn't get better afterwards."

He lunged again. I sort of jabbed at him...but Kronos' fingers went right through, into its mouth past the teeth and down its throat. It roared again, but it was different, this one was tinged with agony.

"Guess the answer to tonight's exciting episode is...not very." I thrust my arm down, guessing where its organs would be, and grabbed the things heart.

It stared at me, eyes wide, possibly for the first time in its whole life, with pain and fear.

I laughed suddenly, the whole situation being ridiculous.

And then I squeezed.

xxx

"Percy...are you all right?" came a voice. Someone was slapping me. I have to wake up again. And why was I so damn wet?

I opened my eyes. "Hey Annabeth." I said blearily. "What happened?"

"I don't really know...but the dragon is...well...it just exploded." she answered, not really hiding who worried she was.

I sat up suddenly. Ah. Dragon blood. That explained the wetness.

I pushed some liver of my arm. So not just blood.

"Your hand...I think it burned it somehow or something but..."

"Never mind that." I said quickly, grabbing my glove. The flesh around Kronos' hand was pulsating slightly. It seemed to have almost melted. After I put the glove on, my arm started to feel numb. Like, dead. It was actually for days before it even felt like I had two arms. And four more before I could actually prove it with things like movement and high fives.

"Are you sure?" she asked, face tinted with concern.

I looked at the dead dragon, the unguarded apples of immortality and the hand of Kronos. I slipped the glove back on and started limping towards the tree. I took a few apples, like we were required to. Then I ripped out the dragon's teeth. Maybe I'll make a necklace. Maybe a skeleton army.

And then I fell to the ground, utterly spent. One thing was for sure...I would not be using the hand too often.

I stood shakily, noting the dragon guts, the fearful Hesperides.

For a second, it looked unreal. So stupid. So...pointless. And I finally understood what Luke meant. Why he hated performing plays with real people.

"And scene!" I yelled, before passing out again.

**Author's Notes:**

**We need more fics featuring Annabeth's dad who modified shotguns, handguns and sniper rifles to fire bullets made of celestial bronze(according to canon, it is possible.) and then go to kick some serious ass with them.**

**You could do so much then...men in black style, gta , monster hunting season...**

**What I really want to read is the kind of story where Percy would be surrounded and by monsters on all sides and yell "Alright you Cloverfield rejects...this is my boomstick!" before levelling them with his celestial bronze shotgun.**

**But I'd be satisfied with any fic which doesn't fucking suck.**

**Next Chapter: We're not Gods**


	8. We're Not Gods

**Brothers By Rage**

**We're Not Gods**

Things were getting bad. Not due to the fact that I couldn't really advertise that the hand of Kronos was currently rendering my left arm useless. Not even the other fact that I can't claim I'm injured because of what they'll find if they examine my arm. No, not even the fact that a lot of the dragon's blood was actually my blood and my chest was ripping apart like a cheap shirt. Not even my nifty new face scar which I got from Ladon kicking me in the face. The only thing which was really bothering me, was this whole war which had kicked into overdrive.

"Damnit Percy, stop daydreaming and help us deal with these things!"

This was no longer halfbloods vs. monsters. This had turned into a war between the Titans and the Gods. While the gods seemed content to mock, disrespect and generally ignore their army the titans were really putting some effort into their recruitment. And into wiping out any halfbloods that didn't want to join them.

"Percy, we are going to die if you don't stop standing there like an idiot!"

Of course, some might think I'm bitter about the whole, me getting split from my only friends and sent with these complete retards on a recovery mission thing, but hey. You know me. I keep my temper in check. It's not like I'm the kind of guy who'll auction his soul for an extra five seconds of quality time with his worst enemies.

"Percy will you fucking do something!"

Swearing? Jeez, I actually drove a child of Athena to swearing. Weren't they supposed to be moral or something? Guess we're all hypocrites about something. Some people don't swear. Some people don't treat life as sacred.

"Please Percy! Help!"

As it were I was sent with three other halfbloods, the spawn of Athena, Demeter and Aphrodite, to get this guy who lived in Jersey. Apparently she is a child of Apollo, who hasn't done anything to me yet, but I can feel it coming. Anyway, the kid was locked in the basement and crying, most likely about the giant wolves which were snarling and howling at her. Also speaking at her, which may be the reason she was so freaked. The other halfbloods were doing okay, but they couldn't handle the entire pack. It was going worse for them, until one of the wolves made a mistake.

I was pretty much ignoring them(read: securing the area) when one of the wolves decided it could take me. A few seconds later a broken wolf corpse was flying towards the basement window. That was the other thing, my body was fucked up to the point where I'm considering surpassing House's _Vicodin_addiction, but it holds. Like Kronos's essence is some really evil super glue.

I saw the scared face of the girl hiding in there, and suddenly my protest seemed rather pointless. She was crying. She was probably fine, but her normal parent...well, I know what side I would bet on in an unarmed mortal vs giant wolf fight.

The Athena guy, I think his name was Malcolm or something, was knocked down. Riptide went swinging and he was as safe as he would ever be. The other wolves turned to me and charged en masse.

Saved me the trouble of going to get them.

"What the fuck!" yelled Malcolm? Angrily. "Percy, we don't have bonus lives for your shit! If anyone dies it's permanent! Is there any part of that I have to go over even slower?" I grinned at him. One wolf was still alive and quite, quite near his throat. It caught my eye and decided it was better to live by running away yelping. The other two were also glaring at me but not angry enough to say anything. Mortal peril will do that do you.

"You need experience. I don't." I said as a half-hearted excuse, all of us knowing that I wanted to be teamed up with Luke and Annabeth or Thalia. But no, apparently our power has to be spread amongst our forces.

"I'm sure the experience will be fucking fascinating to look back at in the underworld." muttered Malcolm angrily. I smiled at him, doing a very good deranged psychopath impression.

"You know _nothing _of the underworld." I said, and he backed off and joined the other two in some pretty deserved shunning. It helped the pain a bit, that I didn't have to keep on talking. Sure, they might not be bright but the constant stream of blood flowing like a river from my left arm might make it hard to hide the fact that I'm not 100%. The fact that my chest was splitting open from the ribcage up was also annoyingly noticeable.

But hey, it probably needs to get worse before it doesn't get better.

xxx

"How are you fitting in?" asked Luke, his sword passing a centimetre below my neck.

"Not too bad. Most of the people are nice but they..." I paused talking and began a flurry of strikes on Luke, who managed to block or dodge every one of them.

"Haven't really been hunted. Haven't felt how bad this life can be." said Luke, completing my train of thought. "They haven't met their limits yet. Some of them are tough but you're the only swordsman who can really hold his own against me." He made a complicated feint and swerving motion, almost disarming me. Unfortunately, that move over extended his reach and I pushed Riptide forward and brought Backbiter down hard on his sword. As I lost Riptide he lost his only sword, but he quickly kicked me so hard in the arm that I lost my hold on Backbiter.

"Good to know I have a use." I said, dodging his first punch, grabbing his arm, and twisting him as I tried to kick him in the ribs.

"You got good in that cell." said Luke, and although it was a passing comment, it really meant a lot to me. For some reason I can't really work up any admiration for the old Greek heroes. But Luke...I managed to hide the fact that I borderline worshipped the guy. "Still nothing on me though."

His arm moved like a snake and was quickly around my neck, putting me in a choke hold. I managed to throw him over my head, but he rolled and started jumped off the wall back at me, delivering a drop-kick which knocked me down. "It says something about your sword skills, that you're this good at unarmed combat." I said standing and trying to remember what little I knew about fighting bare handed.

He laughed and moved again, twisting, and managed to punch me full on in the face. "We'll have to work on your unarmed skills though." he said.

"If we ever get in a bar fight, it'll be embarrassing to need to pull out our swords." "Guess so." I said and we resumed sparring, my chest and torso now moulded together by a striking patch of red and black skin. Luckily Kronos didn't care about his investments appearance, or the scar on my face would be next.

xxx

Of course, we didn't always get to swoop in and save Johnny Unclaimed's ass from the monsters and return to camp half blood for victory ice cream. Sometimes they got there first. Sometimes we probably only qualified for about seventh.

"This the place?" asked Thalia, looking at the bar.

We were in a rather small town, outside a smokey bar. This wasn't the cool place to hang. This was were a lot of people went everyday to forget that that day ever happened.

So, it reaches a point where we get third, fourth etc. in the same area again and again. The obvious answer is that something has set up a permanent little home in that area.

"Yeah...comes in here every day. Apparently it can smell halfbloods even on the clothes of the people in here. So far, it's taken three of them." answered Luke. "Can you smell it?"

Of course, we could give up, and just politely ask the gods to not fuck with the mortals in that area or at least use some divine protection. But sooner or later someone there will get a job as tv show host and bamn! So we had to take the only course of action left to us.

Thalia shook her head. "It's been here a while back, but it left. It might be hunting...we should go figure out where it went."

We turned the tables. Now we were hunting.

xxx

There was no bouncer at the bar. When everyone knows everyone, you could be pretty sure that they knew whether you were under-age or not. Course, looking at the bar, they didn't really care.

Luke irritably manipulated the mist and no one paid us too much attention. Time to figure out where this fucker went. Thalia was much better than me at the interrogation thing, so I sidled up to the bar, and considered ordering a beer and trying to look normal. Then again...14 year old boy in bar with lumberjacks and truckers...the kind of normal that's heading to is not one I want to be a part of.

"Hey...you checking out my girl?" asked a guy, slurring slightly on his words, but his eyes were bright and alive. His arm was around a fairly attractive girl and it looked like it was built into it.

"Nope." I answered, looking away from them.

He shoved me this time. "You saying she's not good enough for you? Think you can do better?"

"Nope." I repeated, wondering vaguely if this was a result of Santa Clause misinterpreting my request for a punching bag.

He slammed his hands down on the bar next to me. "I think we have a problem here. I think we should sort it out right now." he said, grinning at me, probably due to the whole being a foot taller thing. I traced my fingers on the bar and smiled at him.

"If this really is happening, I suggest you sober up first. Alcohol will dull the pain and not let you realize just how badly I'm fucking you up."

He laughed joyfully, probably having waited more than a week for someone he didn't know and could safely beat up. Poor guy. All that cooped up aggression...is about to be beaten out of him.

"Kid...you're talking pretty big for a pale, scrawny b-bitch." he grinned, pretty much warming up his arms in the way those guys do.

"Well, enjoy the concussion." I replied, and my fist shot out towards his face. My hand got caught by Luke, who was now standing between us, grinning. "So...got a reason, or do you just want a piece of this?" I asked, noting that the guy was now REALLY excited and motioning for some of his friends to come over.

"I just wanted to point something out to you...not the obvious, we're in a bar with a bunch of witnesses thing." said Luke, smiling at me. "We're not gods."

He let go of my arm and for the first time the bar idiot looked a bit confused. However, he managed to shake it off. There were people in his bar who had a problem with him. He knew how to sort that problem out. I stared at him for a second and despite being a foot shorter than him, it still felt like I was towering above him.

Suddenly I didn't want to beat him up anymore. I just wanted to get the hell alone and stop thinking. For a second, I was perfectly aware that even if this guy was armed, he didn't stand the slightest chance against me. If we fought, he would lose. End of story. No sequel.

Every defiant act I committed against the gods would be hypocritical. I would have to admit that I'm not against the gods on principle...I'm against the gods only because they had the audacity to fuck with me. Yeah, it's fucking okay if I doom everyone, so long as I get my five minutes of revenge. Suddenly I felt like Hades. When the fist came flying at my face, I didn't duck. I simply took it and pretended to be knocked out.

Luke grinned at the guy, who by now believed he was a god. A second punch and Luke was also down on the floor. I don't really know what Thalia thought as she came up and dragged me and Luke out of there by our shirt collars.

xxx

"I can't take you guys anywhere. Seriously. You'd get into a fight in a morgue or an old age home..." muttered Thalia angrily.

"Yeah, but at least we're effective. Got the guys address." said Luke, standing up and smoothing out his clothes.

"And Luke gave me an epiphany. Bastard." I added, also trying to look less messed up.

"So...where does this thing live?" asked Thalia, all business again.

"There." answered Luke, pointing down a side street.

"I can smell it...but...something is wrong." commented Thalia, as we started walking up the fire escape. She took out a really sharp blade and cut out the glass in the window. But the inside of the home was either a trophy room or a halfblood set up. There was Greek armour, swords and several training dummies. Some angry graffiti was scrawled on the walls, Left 4 Dead style.

"Welcome..." came a voice from the shadows. "We wondered who they would send. Hopefully someone who was not willing to be a pawn there whole lives."

"We prefer the doll metaphor." said Luke. "Pawns imply we can take any other piece. Also, technically we can get to the other end and become gods, but really the odds of that-"

"Instead we got the most vocal morons ever." sighed the voice. "We'll, at least we're going to get the children of the prophecy." The figure walked into the light, grinning at me. "We only need one alive. I wonder which one..."

We could see his face now.

"Um...this would be a lot more dramatic if we actually knew who you are." said Thalia.

"Chris." sighed the guy. "But that's unimportant. Enjoy dying."

Pit scorpions. Damnit. They moved fast. I dealt with four, Luke took five and Thalia electrocuted the rest. In the commotion Chris had managed to get right next to me. "So...Percy...are you tired of this game yet? I know a bit about you...enough to know that the gods took everyone you love from you. And the three they didn't take...they turned into weapons, to be destroyed for self preservation. Now, Oranos is not Kronos. To the mortal world this will mean nothing...simply that there are different beings in a sky they know nothing about."

Pythons. Not elder ones, but still some of the nastiest ones, right out of the pits. They snapped and sprung around. "And now...you keep making the gods angrier...and angrier...but you can't draw this war our forever...eventually a side will win. One side will kill you regardless of how well you fought. The other..."

"I'm my own side." I said, effortlessly slicing the pythons into incredibly stringy jerky. He laughed and made a final hand signal. The walls exploded and armoured statues sprang out. One for each of us. Thalia and Luke had to fight with theirs, but mine was basically pretending while Chris continued to tempt me with the darkside.

"Percy...Hades let you escape because he thinks you have been driven insane. He thinks in your rage you will destroy the titans. He thinks he can torture you, melt you down and reforge you in his image..."

With a grin I jumped unto the statue and ran it through with Backbiter. Thalia and Luke finished theirs up as well. Chris laughed and lifted his hands up, like we were going to cuff him.

"Well, take me back to camp. It'll only hold for a while...Lord Oranos will take this world over. There is a new golden age coming. You can all still be a part of it." I looked at Luke and Thalia in utter dismay. Or rather, pure "wtf guys".

"Seriously...even if they're traitors we only imprison them?"

"Yeah...it's not officially a war yet. The gods still have to debate at their solace..." answered Thalia."We're not allowed to kill any other halfbloods..."

I glanced at Luke and mouthed "killed in the heat of battle?" He nodded.

"Chris, I'm afraid we have a letter for you, from all your beloved friends at camps. It reads, "Dear Chris. Camp Halfblood takes prisoners. Percy Jackson does not. Ps. Enjoy dying."

He looked confused for a minute.

Backbiter through his chest ensured that he might keep that expression for eternity.

Thalia stared at me and yelled something which I couldn't make out. She tried to get to me, but Luke grabbed her.

The sound of waves in my ears was deafening.

"The lake..." I groaned hoarsely. "I need to get to the lake..."

xxx

"Ah. Luke and Thalia." said a man in the pier, smiling softly at us. "Leave us for a while. I would like a chat with my son."

Oh my god. Or oh my father. In dungarees and wading boots, holding out a bait box and two fishing rods.

Luke touched my shoulder and nodded at me. Thalia also seemed a bit down. Considering the amount of parental bonding we get, this was like your dad remembering all your birthdays, getting you actually what you needed (not what you wanted) and then giving constructive critique to your piano recital, so you don't become an annoying prick.

He handed me a Good Rod. I was about to put it in the middle of my backpack when he motioned for me to join him.

"Well...as Dante would say, your life is really shaping up into a divine comedy. He was one of my favourite sons you know." he said, as I threw my lure into the lake. "Do you believe we play favourites?"

"Before that can happen, you would have to care about us." I said stiffly, battling to keep the fury down, just like some supervomit.

"Ah...and all the whining, yelling and crying we do when other gods try to kill you?" he asked, grinning, the perfect picture of a relaxed fisherman. I tried to keep the rage out of my voice. It probably also explains all the long words I kept using...they're so much better for being angry in when you're not allowed to be.

"When it suits you. But the reason you act pissed when the Ares kid tries to kill an Athena kid...is that you use us as an excuse to continue your fucking pathetic rivalries. You can't do anything because you want to...you always have to have an excuse which you then pretend is a reason."

He laughed. "In that case, you would be my favourite son. I don't think anyone else managed to piss so many gods off so quickly. When Hera heard her tree has been desecrated and Ladon destroyed...well, she was seething for days. When Hades learned his greatest jailer was destroyed...when Zeus got the insulting limericks you sent him..." Hey, it's not like he can kill me twice.

"I'm a people person. Not a god person." I answered. Wait...no, I guess I am more of a no one person, but I defiantly prefer the thing which is easier to kill.

He looked at me again, and it was hard to not feel a connection...to not want to be a part of this family despite everything they have done to me. Everything they didn't do for me.

"Have you ever wondered what qualities of godliness define the Olympians? Does wine, hunting or war really define your civilisation as it did in ancient Greece?" he asked, smiling all the while, like he was omnipotent and I wasn't.

Oh great. He was about to get all meta-fucking-phorical on me.

"It's some sort of metaphor isn't it. Wine isn't some alcoholic beverage, it's the ability to get along with each other." I tried, remembering some of the words Annabeth used during her frequent lectures.

"Not quite. It's the ability of the artificial to change people...civilization can easily be seen as a whole bunch of monkeys keeping their inhibitions under control with a little help for chemicals A to Z." he answered, grinning. "Now...what about hunting?"

"Why the hell are you bothering talking to me about this shit? You know I don't give a fuck! I just want to kill and fuck shit up, not think while doing it! I want my mother back! I want a father who isn't a self obsessed spoiled child!"

And Poseidon will get his smite on in...5...4...3...2...1

Poseidon looked into the distance and the lake water shimmered. Fish looked up and stared at us in some sort of awe. They were muttering random litanies or prayers or something, praising the sea lord for his presence. Stupid fish.

"The sea does not like to be restrained." he whispered. "I shall do no such thing. Do you want a father? Do you expect that even if you lived a thousand years you would understand the slightest detail of my nature? There is a world of difference between us Percy. Do you truly think that our actions can be compared in two small categories, right or wrong?"

"No...but I think it should be. I think you should learn not to treat people as possessions and your children as pets. I think you should stop using the word family as a battlecry." I snarled back, my ADHD given awareness noticing that the lake suddenly had ripples everywhere.

"I don't know how this war will end." he said suddenly, avoiding the point with godlike effectiveness. "Have you ever considered that your mother wasn't that special to me? That I simply wanted this prophecy fulfilled by my own?"

"Oh, so I'm supposed to trust you because you trust me? I'm supposed to feel special?" I was now at the I'm-so-angry-I'm-going-to-grin-like-an-insane-clown stage of rage. In the lake, water was randomly shooting upwards, like a field of fountains.

"I think you should consider it's only the fact that you're my son that's keeping you alive!" he answered, voice angry, body still deceptively calm. But then again, the only boat on the lake really did not know how to handle all the sudden whirlpools.

"Yeah...I'll consider it and then remember that all the shit that's been happening to me is because I'm your son!" I answered.

"Percy...you're friend Luke is a man of many ideas. One of them is a sort of justice...of the two of you, he is the one that I thought would be leading the army against the gods. But now...he's doing the exact opposite. And he'll make up reasons...the alternative to gods being titans, that gods would probably do more harm than good if they ever did anything. But really Percy...you're friend Luke would never lead an army against a world which contains you, Thalia and Annabeth. When you fight, you do not only fight for us. You also fight for them. Athena was right...I cannot sway you. But I can tell you you have the right to hate us. And to remember, kill us and they die too. They told me to say that. But I know my son will do what, for lack of a better word, can be called right."

I walked away, not quite sure what he was trying to prove with his blind faith in me and defiantly not going to listen to any more of his attempts to pull my emotional strings.

"Oh and Percy...if you want family which isn't just a battlecry. Go to your old City. 42nd street. There is your little brother. A Cyclops named Tyson." he said, and the man disappeared as the lake calmed.

You'd think Luke and Thalia would want to know about the things I've been up to...but I think my expression could be taken as an epic miniseries based on me and my dad's conversation.

xxx

Dinner was like every other night. People ate, laughed, talked and relaxed. They were winning the war...sure, sometimes people went missing, but so far, they've been taking everything Oranos could dish out. Or choose to dish out at least. There was a feeling of contentment from most of the tables, except for the two perpetually silent ones.

On one sat the daughter of Zeus, completely alone. All hero, all destiny. Perfectly aware that at some point, the Percy Jackson she knew went completely berserk.

On the other sat the son of Poseidon, his body bruised and filled with scars.

He was, at least technically, the youngest of the group.

But when Annabeth tilted her head a bit, and looked at him against the dying sunlight, ,his hair turned grey and his scar took over his face.

And he looked very very old. 

**Author's Notes:**

**Ah...hilarity. When I started writing Pjo fanfics, I was also a member of a fanforum known as Blue Trident. We all became very concerned when one of the members suddenly announced she had terminal cancer and then died a short while later. Only to not have IRL died...there was this whole lying for attention and sympathy thing going on.**

**Later, another member of the forum, who also writes on this site also died of cancer. (With the convenient bonus of not actually dying...guess internet prayers are effective. Then again, not having cancer also might have helped.)**

**The sad part is, I actually have to point out that it's a different person to the one you're thinking of(hey, she has a fic named after her. Sounds pretty well known).**

** I recently stumbled on her account and yay. The fandom really hasn't changed. **

**Or maybe it's just been one person this whole time.**

**Either way, Goddamnit fandom.**

**Next Chapter: Reprint The Cards**


	9. Reprint The Cards

**Brothers by Rage**

**Reprint the Cards**

Stories have a habit of spreading.

Sometimes they change so much they resemble the truth only by accident.

But mostly, a small part stays completely accurate.

And to Clarisse, the fact that Percy Jackson murdered Chris Rodriguez was the only part that mattered.

xxx

"Remind me why we're at this school dance." I said, irritably walking around, trying to avoid the stares. Face scars tend to attract them.

"Because they have not one but two half bloods." answered Luke, moving to the music. Or dancing. Either way, he was doing something I would never do.

"And one of the faculty members is a suspected monster." added Annabeth, who was drinking punch. "We can let him realize what we're-

Okay. I can see where this is going, and I don't like it. See, subterfuge and all those things are complicated. And complicated is currently unnecessary.

The trick is to move quickly before they can even think of stopping you.

"So, I'm going to murder your sister unless you quietly leave this dance floor and come with me." I whispered into Nico's ear, having managed to stride there before Annabeth or Luke could stop me.

He wanted to speak but I made little adjustment to my pen. At least the guy had the sense not to scream.

"We're in a room full of people." he whispered back, but the panic was there.

"Yeah...but unless they are all going to form a huge wall around your sister she'll still be dead. Rule seven kid...don't debate with the psychopath who brought the sword to a dance." I retorted, grinning at him.

"Where to?" he asked, following me as I made towards the exit.

"Somewhere deserted...see, you're not my target and all in all I wish you a happy life. But you're sister is not the only one who is going to notice that you're missing..."

We started tramping through the fields, until I noticed some awesome looking cliffs.

"Okay...so Annabeth will cover your sister, Luke will probably be following us and then the giant monster we want to kill will...well, I'm not really sure." I tried to listen for the tell-tale screams but nothing. Just a bird and what sounds like a lot of animals moving very fast for some reason...

"Monster?" asked Nico, subtly edging away from me.

"Ever heard of Greek Mythology?" I asked, causally throwing a knife into the tree next to him.

And that was a bad question to ask. Nico then proceeded to ignore everything which was going to kill him in this scene, and focus on telling me about this MythoMagic game that he keeps playing. Trouble was, it sounded pretty realistic, and so it was probably made by a half blood.

"Fascinating." I said, cutting off his tirade about how he uses Dionysus along with monstrous vines to swarm the enemy and pointing towards a rather interesting scene. "But the real monsters...they look like that and they aren't easily reduced to numbers."

He screamed. Seeing his teacher turn into a lion and attack his sister invoked some emotion from him for some reason. However, something invisible came between them and Luke grabbed the girl and threw her bodily towards us, where I caught her and placed her next to her stunned brother.

Show time.

xxx

"The Nemean lion." I said, not really impressed. Sure, it was a bad one as monsters go, but against the three of us? You almost had to feel sorry for the thing.

"It has 3500 attack power! And its roars have a plus two chance to terrorize! You need really high bravery to be able to fight the thing!" yelled the male one with dark hair. Well, the slightly manlier one with dark hair.

"Um...yeah. Sounds scary. Tell me, how are the sons of Poseidon rated in that game of yours?" I asked causally taking out Riptide and Backbiter and swinging them above my head. Next level monster baiting manoeuvre.

Luke drew his own sword and loosened Sven's chain, which he still wore as a belt.

"You mean...like the Cyclopes? Or the-"

"No, no. Just the human demigods. The earthshakers. The stormbringers." I said, eyeing the lion which roared annoyingly loudly. Guess my saving throw worked, as I'm still standing here looking delicious.

"Um..." Nice was looking nervously from me to the Lion and back again. "I think they have 1500 attack power but they get some sweet bonuses when attacking in the sea."

"So they think this lion is better than me? Guess those cards need to be reprinted." I told Luke.

He swung the chain idly. "Yeah...I'm almost scared to ask about the demigod children of Hermes."

"700 attack power. But very high speed and plus 3 to all saving throws." said Nico quickly.

"We'll visit the factory or whatever." I said reassuringly. "You aren't that much weaker than me. You're at least 900."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Bianca, who had positioned herself in front of Nico for some reason. "And why isn't it about our teacher who turned out to be a giant lion?"

"While that does seem to be a much more pressing topic," began Luke. "The real focus should be on the fact that Percy thinks he can take me."

"Be quiet 700." I said mockingly.

The lion, which was probably more than a little bit annoyed by now, jumped us. Thankfully, a fully invisible Annabeth was on its neck and stabbing furiously. It threw her off with an almost annoying ease. I'm guessing from the sounds. Obviously the visuals were a bit grainy.

"Do you think the children of Athena have invisibility? Or is there separate equipment and weapons which can be attached to various demigods?" I mused, wondering whether I should start playing this game just to rub it in Luke's face about, oh, 700 times. Nico made the mistake most hardcore people made, which was to explain the advanced tactics and to just gloss over the basics.

Don't let people do this do you in Starcraft. Zerg Rush FTW.

"The children of Athena have 1000 attack power and very high intelligence." began Nico but he was a bit shocked at the speed at which me and Luke moved. He threw one end of Sven's chain to me, and as the monster roared we ran so that the length of chain caught on his considerable jawline. Then we pulled, forcing its mouth further open.

A quick turn and Riptide and Luke's Sword was through its throat.

"Took you guys long enough." said Annabeth, slipping off her baseball cap.

Bianca and Nico stared at us like we had achieved whole new levels of awesome. Or like we were completely insane. But the former is far more likely.

"So...you guys might be wondering who we are and just what the hell we just did." I said, in my best preppy voice. "Well, you might have noticed that certain changes have been coming over your bodies. This is normal. You may also have noticed that certain adults and giant monsters keep trying to kill you. This is not normal."

"Basically..." Interrupted Annabeth, glaring at me. "You're half immortal god. One of your parents were one the ancient Greek gods."

Bianca's eyes widened in confusion. Nico's eyes widened in excitement. Good times. Smashing. Luke had picked up the Nemean lion's fur and wrapped it around himself, using the mist to make it look like a badass...sweater? Goddamnit Luke.

And then came the delightful call of the one woman I really, really don't like. Zoe. And the rest of all her hunters. Actually, scratch that. It was the call of one of the many, many women I really, really didn't like. And fuck making little dots on the e in her name. The bitch does not deserve it.

"If you wanted to steal our thunder, you're a bit late." I said, looking at Zoe.

"Ah...Percy Jackson. And Luke Castellan. Two men who have denied two woman the greatest opportunity of their lives." said Zoe, looking at us with narrowed eyes, one hand on her bow.

"Recruiting again?" asked Luke. None of us really love these guys. Okay, me and Luke are merely annoyed by them. But Annbeth and Thalia full on hate them. The whole calling them foolish little hormone driven girls because they refuse to abandon their friends to certain death really just didn't sit well with them for some reason. And the guilt of still wanting to do it...well let's just say those hunters know how to stir the pot.

"Don't think of it as recruitment." said Zoe, smiling, all poster child for Bianca's sake. "We think of it more as giving them an opportunity."

"Yeah. The upside is immortality. The downside is they have to spend it with you." said Annabeth coldly. I resisted the impulse to high five her. My willpower exercises must be working.

Artemis then entered, interrupting the epic stare down that was occurring between Annabeth and Zoe. And me and everyone else, but my head had to move really fast to let them all know they can come get some if they want too. Luke, who had managed to pickpocket Nico, was going through the cards and was making odd noises. Apparently even the Aphrodite's children had more attack points than he did.

"Greetings Lady Artemis." the three of us said together.

We all bowed to her, Annabeth cleverly grabbing Nico's arm to prevent him from asking her questions about her stats and then probably getting turned into some sort of hunt able animal. My bow was maybe just a bit too theatrical, but I never was good at hiding my distaste. Or my arousal. Only the hunters manage to get both of those from me.

"I would like to speak to Bianca and Miss Chase. Alone." she said, motioning towards her tent. I noticed that Grover was practically humping her leg. Well, not physically, but you'll get it after you read some poetry. Wait...oh yeah, we were supposed to meet him here. But my quick thinking managed to spare us even that.

Annabeth nodded coldly, but she wasn't going to refuse a goddess anything.

"Try not to become a narrow minded biased frigid eternal maiden in there." I whispered to Annabeth, just loud enough for Artemis to hear.

And the amount of immortals who really want me dead: 5

That means just two more, and any vote concerning my life or death is bound to go badly. Maybe I can get it up to six tonight.

"Percy." whispered Luke. "Look at the immortal feminist goddess. Now back to you. Back to the man hating goddess. Back to you. You are not immortal. Nor are you a goddess. You are a sort of manly male. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Artemis however, left. I think it's a competition amongst the gods, to see who will be the first to lose control and just full on kill me. The loser probably doesn't get to torture me in Tartarus. And we all know that's where the really good stuff goes down.

"Well...Nico, the good news you sister is going to be immortal. The bad news is the whole "never going to see her again" angle." I said, trying to be sympathetic.

Nico looked quite fazed, and the Huntresses still looked quite ready to slaughter all three of us. However, me and Luke had far more important things to discuss.

"Seriously, only 700?" asked Luke. "How good is that, relatively?" He asked, still going through the cards. We then got into a very freaky and above all distracting conversation about monsters, gods and armour and things. Turns out Mr.D only got 500 points. It sounds like it was a quite peeved former camp half blood guy who made this game.

The huntresses stared at us. I have considered flipping them off but I also had something pressing on my mind. "Now, these sea bonuses...just how much more amazing than Luke does that make me?"

Annabeth, Zoe and Bianca came back. Annabeth still looked normal but Bianca had the tint of immortality on her. Nico's face fell. She forced herself to be a mom and now she thinks it's a good idea to be a teenager forever.

Silly Bianca.

"Lady Artemis will be hunting a new monster." said Zoe, addressing the hunters. "We will temporarily wait for her at Camp Half blood." Several of them groaned.

"At least our capture the flag team will be ridiculously overpowered." I said to Luke, who nodded maliciously. I wasn't there, being damned and all that, but apparently we lost when the camp last went up against the hunters. Also the 56 times before that.

"K...long walk back, I guess." said Luke, thinking like me that we sure as hell weren't going to get a taxi for this many people.

"That will not be necessary." said Zoe. "We will be leaving with Lady Artemis' brother."

"And no Thalia to encourage Zeus to not blow us out of the sky. Lovely." I said bitterly.

xxx

"He's not that good looking." I said for the fourth time, looking at Apollo, whom Annabeth seemed entranced by.

"I mean this in a totally hetero and no homo kind of way but dammit Percy...do you not see that guy's hair?" said Luke, captivated in the spell that was Apollo's hair. "Styled...yet so causal. It looks like he just came out of bed...with a hairstylist...who was doing his hair. And here it comes...the flip." Apollo flipped his hair back, causing waves of sensation throughout the bus. Simple, yet more complex than a spider web which detailed calculus. Subtle, yet devastating. "How can they remain maidens after having seen that?" asked Luke in wonder.

"And why are you exhausting your drool supply over them?" I asked Grover, noting the love struck eyes and dazed expression.

"Nature...they totally nature." he said, eyes on them, brains several million miles away.

"They mostly shoot nature." I pointed out.

"Lovingly..." said Grover, still staring.

Apollo flipped his hair again.

"Sublime." whispered Luke.

Yep. This has long trip written all over it.

xxx

"You're back. And you brought them with you." said Mr.D. "I thought they would never come back here."

"Yeah...they don't really like us." I said, finally glad that I wasn't the one on the receiving end of the whole Mr.D treatment.

"They are right here." said Zoe coldly.

"That they are." said Mr.D. "For the first time, I might actually be rooting for a side in capture the flag. And it won't be theirs."

Chiron had to come play peacekeeper of course, and we couldn't jam the rudeness up to whole new levels.

"We will be going to cabin eight. We apologise for intruding on your considerable hospitality." said Zoe, with a pretty good attempt at reinventing sarcasm.

"They think so much of themselves." commented Luke.

"They think they're so thoughtful." I joined in.

"We...really look forward to the game tonight." said Zoe, as her parting shot.

"Guess we're bait again." Luke said.

"Guess so. Unless Thalia kills them all first."

xxx

"So Nico...ready from some hardcore combat?" I asked, noting that he really wasn't geared up right for this. His armour was too large, his sword was too long, his hair was just terrible and god dammit, he should change his diet because his complexion was horrible. He looked like a ghost or a corpse or something.

"Yeah! Do we respawn! Are there weapon drops? How much maiming are we allowed?" asked Nico, with the enthusiasm of someone who hasn't not been stabbed/slashed/poisoned and generally maimed before.

"No...unless you count the respawn time as eternal. And no...what we got is what we got. If we disarm them, we may take their weapons, but as you've never used a bow before, I wouldn't recommend it. Thirdly, stay on guard duty. We haven't trained you yet, and I don't want your corpse on my mind." He looked kind of put out, so I relented.

"Okay...how about this...stick with me. And then you can distract them while I brain them from the side." I said, like the role model I was.

"But...that isn't very sporting..." said Nico hesitantly.

"Yeah...staying alive generally isn't." I observed.

"We have the offence." said Thalia, indicating her and Annabeth.

"This whole vendetta will only be worth it if it ends in a cat fight." noted Luke. "Anyway, take everyone. Me, Percy, Charlie and Nico got this." We stuck the flag in Zeus fist and the four of us would probably be enough to guard the flag, considering that even Silena was out to take them down. It was a pretty safe bet that not too many of them would make it to here, and when they did, they'll hopefully be so eager to take me and Luke down they won't notice the myriad of traps which Beckendorf had set up.

"Yeah...woah, those guys sure do think love is useless. And forging is dumb. I'm not sure how they feel about war, but I'm pretty sure they think it sucks." I said, motivating my allies.

The campers headed out and the competition started. Nico kept looking more and more restless.

"Don't worry about the whole hitting girls thing." said Luke. "I know, in the mortal world, when you fight a girl it's all like "hey you beat up a girl!" or "haha you got beat up by a girl!" but here...there is no real shame to either."

"That's not to say that if you get married you are allowed to beat your wife, although it will be slightly less frowned upon if you do. Still, don't do that. Unless you can sing." I said.

"Or are you depressed about the whole, never seeing your sister again thing?" asked Luke, adjusting his combat stance.

"Excellent phrasing guys. I spend the whole day in a forge and I have better social skills than you two." said Beckendorf.

"Look..." I said. "The important thing is, your sister will be really happy. She has a sort of family now...and it's hard but, sometimes it may seem selfish but," Damnit, I don't know how to complete this.

"But she still loves you." continued Luke for me. "And if you love her, you'll understand that sometimes you have to let those you love go."

Nico was trying really hard not to look...well, less manly than us.

A whole bunch of arrows suddenly flew through the air. Beckendorf, who had a huge shield, manage to catch several of them, while I dealt with the rest.

"Hey, it's Zoe." Noted Luke, as she jumped over the traps Beckendorf planted and landed...next to Nico? She must really be desperate if she's taking the easy and dishonourable way. Also known as my way.

I threw myself between them, right after Nico got a lucky parry in. "Take that one!" I yelled, pointing randomly and hoping there was someone there who didn't like maiming.

An absolutely huge girl was tousling with Luke, who was using his chain and sword at the same time. Damn he has nice form.

The concerned reader would note; I should really be focusing more on the battle with Zoe.

Me and Zoe were actually going at it quite hard. She had two knives out and she was _fast_. I could barely parry and she was actually forcing me to go up the pile of boulders. Well, guess that's two thousand years of experience versus four years of awesome...

And three more hunters were jumping Luke, who was now forced to let the other huge girl come up after me. They said I would have to suffer for my wit...

Now, I'm quite strong. Really, almost inhuman levels. But this girl literally picked me up one handily and threw me off the boulders. Well, hello again ground. I skidded awhile, making it look totally intentional.

Zoe triumphantly grabbed the flag and Nico almost went an hero to try and stop her. Luckily I managed to grab his ankle and pull him back.

"But they're going to win!" yelled Nico.

"Nico...although it may seem that we got pawned just now and you're considering a Leroy Jenkins, but..."

I paused, as Thalia appeared out of nowhere and damn near KO'd Zoe with her spear.

"We really know what we are doing." I concluded soundly.

And with that, Annabeth took off her baseball cap and revealed that we already had their flag.

"Yay." said Mr.D boredly. "Go camp half blood. For the next two days smiling while doing chores is no longer mandatory."

Chiron seemed to almost have passed out with joy.

"First...victory...ever...must...not...victory gallop..." came the noises from his almost comatose form.

"How bad was last time?" I asked Luke.

He shuddered. "So...much...fail..."

However, fate checked her to do list and saw "fuck with Percy Jackson" was highlighted and underlined twice.

"Is that the oracle?" I asked, as the mummified thing came closer and closer, to general awe.

"Oh god...here comes a prophecy." said Luke, and we had to listen to the spirit which kept screwing with our lives whenever it opened its damn mouth. Or didn't. It's hard to see with all those bandages.

Predictably, Zoe was shocked, Chiron was in awe, there was going to be a quest , Percy and Luke had to carry the undying corpse back into the big house blah blah blah.

Really, things were getting Harry Potter 7 boring. I almost get why Voldemort got monologued to death.

xxx

"So...all the cabin heads have heard the prophecy. A mixed force of campers and hunters must go and rescue the goddess Artemis." said Chiron.

"I vote we abandon Artemis to her fate." said Luke.

"She's a loose cannon." I added.

Zoe was about to yell, but I think the emotion was getting to her.

"Calm down." said Luke. "This is the only time we can mock her without getting killed. Don't take this away from us."

"Are they...always like this?" asked Bianca, to general annoyed nodding.

"Their life expectancy was never very high...and they're convinced it's only going to get lower anyway." sighed Thalia.

Both me and Luke pretend not to acknowledge the fact that the second this war was over, we were so, so very fucked.

"Three hunters and two campers." said Annabeth, completely ignoring the conversational death trap we had created.

"And they'll have to be female...I suggest our most powerful female halfbloods, Annabeth Chase and Thalia Grace. You all seem to get along well." said Mr.D, not looking up from his porn.

Now we've just started going too far.

"Accepted." said Zoe, shocking pretty much everyone. "Anyone who isn't those two." She said, indicating me and Luke. Thalia and Annabeth started glaring at us.

"I think our life expectancy took another sharp drop." noted Luke, trying to dodge the death glares.

"Plummet." I suggested , really regretting the fact that they know where I sleep.

"We'll also take Phoebe and Bianca." continued Zoe.

"Two are going to die..." Silena noted. "Are you sure it's wise to take your most inexperienced recruit out on that kind of mission?"

Zoe was silent. Damnit...I'm guessing she's the one who's going to be killed by her own father... she was definitely not going to let anyone die for her. "She will learn." said Zoe softly, standing up from the table. The rest of us were worried, but not going to say anything.

"You point was deadly, put your phrasing was terrible." I told Silena. "This is how you do it." I turned to Zoe. "So...basically Bianca is going along as your meat shield?"

She probably would have retorted, and it definitely would have gotten very fun and violent. Unfortunately, fate decided it would deny me even that, seeing as it was underlined and highlighted on her goddamn list.

"Oh goddamnit." I said, as the oracle came waltzing into the council room. Okay fine, it was more like lurching. It then looked at me and started sprouting this dumb prophecy involving me, the Labyrinth and the two partners of my choice.

I looked at Luke. "Next time we take it back to the big house, we're using duct tape."

"Two quests simultaneously...this is unprecedented." said Chiron seriously.

"Did anyone jot down what that thing said? I was fantasising about killing it." I answered, managing to block out all the shit about the Labyninth possibly having an entrance directly into camp half blood, how Oranos's troop movements suggest he's planning a single massive strike...

Voldemort, I feel you bro. When the world decides fuck action, we want words, there's no place left for people like us.

xxx

While me and Luke were strapping up and taking our favourite armour and knives with us, it seemed that Thalia intended to travel light, since she was unloading several glares, death threats and general lectures on me and Luke.

However, I had a pale little problem which was staring at me. I felt a bit weird seeing Nico sitting all alone in the dining area. It might be a pang of conscience. Nah, too unlikely. It's just a coincidence. Maybe something I ate.

Seeing as Thalia seemed to actually be picking up steam(if you want a metaphor, it was like she stole over nine thousand kettles and put them all on at once.) I decided to grace the little guy with my presence.

"Hey bro...how's the loneliness from being abandoned by the only family you've ever known? Still searing?" I asked sliding into the seat next to him.

"You're trying to make me angry. Because you can handle angry...but you can't handle sad." answered Nico, not looking up.

Okay...did not expect that. The other option of course, was that I was just an insensitive asshole, but due to the goddamn liberals we've learned that those people don't exist and all the evil people are actually just misunderstood.

"Well, okay. So how are you holding up then?" I asked. "Do you think if I care hard enough you'll feel better?"

He turned to look back at me. His expression had several short stories about sadness contained in it. It would make the Mona Lisa stop smiling.

"No...just...make sure she survives okay? You can do that can't you?" he asked, trembling slightly.

"Over the top kid..." I laughed. "Nice try by the way. Pretending you want to be all alone, right where you are within easy distance of me and Luke's favourite toys. You're planning to follow them huh?"

We've gone from scared boy to defiant boy in no time. Hey, I might actually start to like this little bastard if he keeps this up.

"Are you going to try and stop me?" he asked, venom in his voice. And probably stupidity pills in his throat, if he seriously thinks he can take a guy two years older and four years more experienced.

"Yeah. Like I said, you're corpse is not going to be on my conscience. I could take you with me...an inexperienced but oh so brave side kick, ready to help, inadvertently getting us out of sticky situations...sorry, don't see it." I replied. "This is the real world kid, you'll either hold us back for hours or get killed in seconds."

Oh dear. He's standing up, drawing his sword the wrong way, standing in a position where a single kick will send him down.

"Relax kid...Thalia and Annabeth won't let anything happen to the youngest, least indoctrinated Huntress. And they are excellent fighters...the only real criticism I can give them is they are not me or Luke." I said, one hand idly moving down to Backbiter.

He moved forward, swinging wildly. I kicked him in his right leg and he went down hard.

"Guess you didn't really get the whole, best in the world thing I got going on." I noted, ripping his sword out of his hand and slamming him against the nearest cabin wall.

He made squeaky sounds.

"Listen...if I can play with you like a doll, you're going to be nothing but a distraction to your sister. Hell, you might even be the reason she gets killed. Cause...this isn't a game. There are no reloads, you can't just stand up and walk away. If you want to save your sister, get stronger. Until then, if you follow her, your death will be her fault. That's the kind of games the fates play. Get it?" Okay. I put a bit too much raw emotion into that.

"She's...she is...already on a quest...why...not...me..."

I let him go so he could fall to the floor.

"While Zoe freaking Nightshade might believe that people can get forged strong in fire I am fucking sure that they can also get burned. One way or another, you're staying kid. And when I come back...I want you to be so good that the fight isn't measured in seconds."

He stared at me, angrily, conveying the whole idea that he would get stronger.

Contrary to the obvious, that he was still going to follow them anyway the second I took my eyes of him.

"Here's some motivation kid...next time, you might actually be able to follow them."

Kick to head.

Knocked out body towards big house.

He's going to wake up in a few days when they are far, far away. And this time, he will have a pretty good reason to become stronger , a defiant rage burning in him, forcing him to never, ever let anything like that happen to him again.

I'm the best role model ever.

xxx

Three hunters left the camp.

Also five campers.

Which is one too much, seeing as Luke and Percy went alone before Chiron could organise a meeting.

**Author's Notes:**

**Yaoi? In my fanfic? I can't even write regular romance. And besides, 36k+ is way too long for yaoi.  
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**And we finally get to the war...which isn't led by Kronos, but the real mofo, Oranos. You think Kronos was bad? Oranos won't even conveniently plan all his schemes in the summer! School will have to be missed!**

**Kronos was evil but at least he cares about the education of children. **

**Next Chapter: Army Of Two**


	10. Army Of Two

**Brothers By Rage**

**Army Of Two**

"So...considering that the Labyrinth is only a danger because it has a direct entrance into camp half blood...is there a reason we've been sprinting like motherfuckers for the past few miles?" I asked, breathing harder than a dehydrated porn star.

Luke grinned and threw a long coat over his shoulders so that it caught the wind. I knew the guy...he just wanted to look cool for a while. Or possibly rip off something he saw in an anime.

"Well, I've read a bit about the Labyrinth...when we had to think up ways to rescue you...and what I read convinced me to formulate only one plan concerning the labyrinth : avoid it at all costs. Percy, we're not going to be able to go in there and have a relaxing little stay...we'll have to go in and out all the time just to stay sane...and we'll need to find that damn string. I doubt that's in camp half blood." said Luke, staring at the horizon around us. I tried to see what he was seeing, until I realized he was just appreciating the view.

"We also need to find two partners..." I added. "If we stayed they probably would have forced us to take someone useless, like a Satyr or one of Aphordaite's spawn."

Luke sat, still looking far away. "Percy, how much do you know about this war?"

"Well, it's happening and I'm part of it. Seems I got the important parts covered." I replied, realising Luke was in planning mode and just using me as some rubber to bounce his ideas off of.

"Well, for you yeah. See, the other campers have a lot of people they care about. Currently, Oranos is moving from house to house, killing the mortal parents of the half bloods...he does it in patterns but not very clear ones, so that anyone can imagine their families are next...and they then panic and head home to protect their families...only to realise that one person can't do shit against an army. And then the resentment against the gods starts, getting worse and and infected and bitter...they lose their families, their faith. Oranos is winning this war by turning it into a war of attrition. He's removing half bloods one by one by one...and now, the labyrinth is the first thing which actually seems to be worth a full frontal attack to him...he could wipe us all out at once if he figured it out."

"A full battle might actually help us..." I mused hopefully. " Or at least kill my boredom for a few hours."

"No, it won't." said Luke. "Anyway, as it turns out, Oranos now needs the Labyrinth. Because if we master it...we'll be able to get to where he is in an instant. We'll be able to out manoeuvre him at every single step. He knows we're looking for it. So he'll be guarding the entrances he's found...all we need to do is find the guards."

I thought this through, and wondered what Oranos was thinking...sure, guards might hinder us, but the cost of them revealing the entrance vs. them guarding it didn't make sense...after all, monsters are way to easily traceable if you have the right things and the guts to go looking for them...ah.

"He'll be using half bloods as guards. Or even regular humans." I noted, looking at Luke.

"Yeah, about that..." said Luke, taking out a crystal.

xxx

"It's a bakery." said Luke.

"An evil bakery." I said, trying to make him feel less like an arsonist and more like a freedom fighter.

"Still...there are three entrances in New York alone...this one is expendable..." he mused.

"Let's pretend we're Jehovah's witnesses...I've got some great one liners for when we're pretending to be Jehovah's witnesses." I suggested, grinning and accidentally flashing them my sword, prompting one of the bakers to move his hand to his gun and...oh shit. Forgot those still work on us. "Can't we all be men of the lord?" I asked helplessly, realizing that we had no pamphlets, no knowledge of our subject matter and most importantly, I was waving around weapons made of celestial bronze.

I made scuttling noises and ran away while Luke sneaked in. The guy looked like he knew we were about to come fuck shit up when Luke throttled him from behind.

"Normal human..." said Luke, looking at his crystal again. "That means..."

"That you will be cleansed by fire." said a voice from the corner. Oh dear. Sitting almost inside the oven, wearing a long black leather coat was a ginger haired...emo? Goth? Priest? This guy was sending more mixed singles than your average teenage girl. Luke turned and smiled at the guy while I sprinted back. Almost simultaneously, both of them started manipulating the mist. Damnit. Standoff. I probably can't interfere unless Luke is going to die. A matter of pride or honour or some other stupid thing which the dead have a lot of and the smart people don't.

"So...a son of Heaphestus. And a bitch of Oranos. Almost makes you wonder which one is more pathetic." said Luke, as they started to circle one another.

"Indeed...ever wonder why you only see teenagers at that camp of yours? Other than the mortality rate?" asked the guy, picking up a single bladed axe. He was a lot taller than he looked.

Oh well. I made my went into a corner with a couple of bagels and sat back to criticize the show.

"Possibly because it's a camp for teenagers, designed to teach them how to live with their...disability?" suggested Luke, his sword slashing a line between them.

"Or because we get thrown away. One quest, that's it, you're done. And then they struggle to carve out lives for themselves, always carrying the weapons with them. Always having to be on guard. And then one day...when you're forty, or fifty...you simply can't fight that well any more and the monsters have you. Your family. They take everything first and you last." He grinned, and flung himself at Luke, moving the axe in elaborate half circles, striking at Luke from the sides, who deflected it with apparent ease. But some sweat was showing on his neck.

"So I asked myself...should I do the noble thing and martyr myself for the cause? A few years ago the gods didn't give half a shit about me...and now suddenly there's a war, suddenly we're important. You'll all be thrown away when this is over. I prefer to chose a side in which I actually benefit if the side wins."

Now they were basically spinning around each other, the guy somehow calling fire from the oven and throwing it at Luke, great licks of flame bursting at him, but he was way too fast. Luke dodged and spun on one foot, landing two heavy blows on the guy, one drawing blood from his arms. The guy kicked out as Luke was facing sideways, forcing him into a table covered with various baked goods(I can really recommend the bagels.) He jumped forward and tried to hack Luke's back to shit but Luke undid Sven's chain and pulled it taught, catching the axe and allowing him to get away.

"You're too good for this Luke...Oranos is not like Kronos, he is the true master of this world, the true sky lord...he will not pretend he is perfect, he will not take the bastard title of god. He will lead this world as he sees...but there will be a justice. His justice. You have to decide for yourself if apathy is preferable. He's not a god Luke...he can change."

Now Luke was attacking, stabbing so fast that I could barely follow his sword, forcing the guy to jump left and right the whole time.

"He just needs a mortal general Luke...a man who can defy anything. A man who can finally, right this world. A man who won't think up some excuse for suffering, ignorance, decadence or hate, who won't wish it good as necessary...a man who can kill the gods themselves."

Mmmm. Bagels. All I need is some bacon.

"You know, Lord Oranos often speaks of you. He whispers to all who will listen...but you're the only one who whispers back without any fear. You can fix this world...you can make it right." He was whispering now, in that creepy we're-so-going-to-convince-you voice.

He got too close and was decapitated before he could react.

I finished my sixth bagel and stood up. "Well...I'll pretend that didn't affect you, you can pretend...well, whatever." I said, kicking open the door to the back.

Fuck knows why Daedalus built an entrance into a bakery from the Labyrinth , but if it was for the bagels, I think me and this guy will be able to bond.

xxx

Okay, first impressions. It's cold, dark and the walls are made of rock.

Second impression, the walls are made of flesh, there are eyes staring at us from everywhere, half dead skinned...things were jumping around.

Third impression, back to the cold, dark walls.

"Huh." I said numbly.

"Yeah." agreed Luke, who was starting to sweat a bit. "I can control the mist to an extent, but mostly...this is way beyond me."

"I don't suppose we can combine our mist bending abilities?" I asked, my throat drying a bit. It seemed that the horrors started generic and then started to specialise based on what makes you piss yourself the fastest. For some people, Labyrinth 101 contains rats. For me, it contained the manticore impaling my mother in a variety of ways. Spikes ripping her apart at ever joint. And then she was suddenly whole again and smiling, before some wolves started ripping her apart. Then I was the one torturing her...and I made that idiot from Saw look like an amateur. You probably get the picture by now. Actually you don't, as it branched out all around me, surrounding me with a canvas of my mom being fucked up. Great...now Luke is added to the horror mix...wow, did not think an axe would be able to fit in there.

"We shouldn't walk too far." said Luke, who was looking green. "We might not be able to find the exit again."

"Yeah...we should get out...unless we can do...we should get out..." I said breathlessly. Yay. Five minutes in and I'm already ready to fuck all civilization just to get out of here.

"Trespassers will be forced to wander these halls for eternity after having been mentally tortured to the point where they are mere shells." said...the walls? Great. I was mentally screaming no but they started sexing me anyway.

"Luke...I think I'm seeing a ghost. Do they exist or is this just more mind rape?" I asked, trying to stare back at the towering phantasm. Hey,a crown.

"I'm the king of ghosts...and you are in my kingdom." came the voice from the spectre. Huh...I'd have figured the underworld would be his kingdom. Not that I can really form many coherent thoughts at the moment, so hey, this might actually make sense. And Luke was getting mauled by some demonish things behind me. Except for the few split seconds in which he wasn't.

"Percy...your ears are bleeding...oh wait they fell off..." noted Luke, in his "I'm so NOT worried" voice.

"They're not." I answered, wishing I smoked, just because of how badass the scene would look if I lit up right now. The part you haven't heard of yet were the red dragons which jumped out of the wall and ripped me to pieces, my ribs being torn open and a twin headed dragon sticking it's snout in and ripping out all my organs. Luke stepped back and yelled. Guess he takes the swing and miss approach to scare his trespassers.

"It's not happening..." I said softly, and I think for a second Luke could see my standing there calmly and then it was back to seeing me get mutilated and eaten. Again. As long as you stayed vaguely logical, this wasn't so bad. Of course, staying logical when you can see your own organs being eaten...that _is _so bad.

He once more did the sensible thing and closed his eyes. But Minos was a bit smarter than Tartarus. He could still makes us hear...things. Me screaming for help. Annabeth sobbing as she was stabbed by what was essentially a ball of needles. Thalia crying as...goddamnit...that minotaur had more than two horns. I would have closed my eyes but I had only one chance here. The ghost's lack of a body made it hard for me to do what I do best.

"You will lose first your minds...then your lives...then you will become permanent actors in my show of horrors." came the spectral body.

Cheesy dialogue...but ultra realistic effects. Sure, I knew it wasn't real but the disfiguring things walking towards me were still wreaking havoc on my sanity meter. I kicked Luke in the head hard enough to knock him out for a while.

"Fuck off." I said, managing to sound bored. The spectral stopped hovering, the images stopped and I was aware I was in what was essentially a bricked up tunnel again...but only for a second. Then the thing managed to resume as if I did not just grab it by the reality and start tearing holes.

"This is my world and down here I am lord of all. You will fall to me eventually. Your very glands betray you. Your mind belongs to me. Soon you will crack like all who came before you." The...well, think of it as the sort of ghostly mist you always see in the cheap movies. Anyway, that was rearranging itself into a huge form with a nice B movie villain grin.

"Let me put this in terms you probably won't understand...this might be your terrain. But this world is my movie, and your an overrated sub plot which doesn't really contribute to anything. And I'm in editing mode bitch."

Now we both pretend we aren't affected by the displays of the other. Cue more random girls I know getting raped and mutilated by various unthings, my best friends being destroyed by monsters, me being forced to play chess with Mr.D...really scraping the bottom of the barrel huh?

I was still just standing there. You see, David can't really kill Goliath...but maybe, just for a second, he can convince him to be scared of the stone.

"Yeah...the thing is, you cause nightmares. I am one." I said,managing to appear completely unphased. I grinned in the total darkness, red skin glowing brilliantly. For a few seconds, I appeared to be...well, lets just say I couldn't see my face but my body looked like the kind of things Satan bans from hell because he doesn't like having nightmares. The tears and contorted demon flesh was showing. I stuck my left hand out...and brought my right hand towards it, forcing my will into the walls around us, a small earthquake started shattering the walls. It's all about effect.

And then suddenly, the air rushed at me as the ghost tried it's last resort trick. Somehow it was entering my mind. _Bad _place to be. See, if you asked people to guess what kind of pokemon I'd be, the dumb ones would guess fighting. The slightly smarter(but convinced that their geniuses) ones would say dark. Thing is...I'm poison.

For the first time, the king of ghosts stepped back and cried out in horror. "I have no idea how an incorporeal body will feel as it is ripped apart..." My hand, looking like physics was really fucking wondering how all the pieces were still together, started nearing the mist on its own accord. "Be sure to tell me okay?"

Backbiter shown in the dark, bright and terrifying. It looked like it could kill anything, including ghosts and rancors. Minos fled, screeching away. But he'll be back. And next time, he'll keep his cool. The fact that I had managed to pull a lot of the roof down on myself might also have freaked him a bit.

Slinging Luke over my shoulders, I started walking back towards the exit. The bothersome thing was the Labyrinth was already healing itself as we walked out.

You might wonder just what the hell is wrong with me. What Minos saw in my mind. I can't tell you that. If I knew, I might actually find out how to solve it. When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. When all you have is the ability to kill...well.

xxx

So...one day in, a lot of literal chest scarring and some less visible mental scaring. All in all, one day I'll probably be able to throw paint over my torso and it'll appear to be some very modern sketches.

"You know, I'm glad it's just you and me out here." said Luke, who was sharpening his sword. We were currently in a parking lot, which had a lot of cars but no people. They're quite nice to just chill in. People mostly leave you alone.

"Well, it is nice knowing my help is at least competent enough to not die the whole time." I replied, trying to find a position which didn't make my chest scream at me. He looked at me for a while.

"You see, it's that...you and me, we're a fucking army of two. Thalia...well, if you giver her the choice to destroy or save the world, she'll probably find some escape clause to get the hell out of it. And Annabeth...she'll probably find a smart solution which will benefit everyone. But you and me...we'll strike at anything, even the gods. You have to be insane to fight a god...but we...we can do it." I had to consider that one for a while.

"Fight a god?"

"Oranos." said Luke, grinning, his face half hidden in shadow so scratch that. I'm only 50% certain it was a grin. "We have to win this war...and in the end, no one should be able to say it could've been won without us. And then maybe... maybe we can change some things."

Damn. The guy had gotten into Luke's head. And now his words were on repeat and Luke could get new meaning from them every time he heard them. Again and again and again. Now Luke can start thinking about what he should change, and how, and into what...

The problem about thing changers...is that they mostly turn living things into dead things and working things into broken things.

"We need to go make a detour." I said. "It'll take our minds off things, if nothing else."

xxx

There is a cardboard box. It's supposed to be a home for a child of the gods.

Luke whistled. "Big guy...guess it's a Cyclops."

I looked around, some people were avoiding the area. From the whimpering coming from the box, I could be pretty sure there was something around here big and mean enough to bully a Cyclops. And I was practically marinated in monster attracting cologne.

I decided shock treatment was the way to go. I took out Backbiter and with two massive swipes cut the box off of him. The whimpering continued. In the remains of the box was a hunched form, covering it's head with its hands, trying to disappear, to convince everything else that it doesn't exist. I turned to Luke. Sure, it's a monster but touchy feely things aren't my speciality. So far, the only thing I'll be able to do is to put out of its misery. Permanently.

"Calm down big guy." said Luke, nudging the Cyclops. "We're not going to hurt you." For a second the head looked up and I couldn't really see, but he seemed to have two...no one...eye. The kept moulding into each other and into one, like when you're going nearer and further away from a mirror that's between your eyes.

"Listen...I'm your big brother...and the way my family works, is we're going to go kick the shit out of whoever has been..." The words caught in my throat as I saw the patterns of scars all over his back. "Seemingly playing several games of noughts and crosses on your back."

"Can't help." answered the pile.

Luke grinned. Sure, there might be a nice, calm, modern way to talk him through his problems. But we sure weren't any of those things, so we're going to do this our way. And if we have to kill several monsters to do it, so much the better.

"Let me show you what I do...and hopefully what you'll be able to do for yourself afterwards."

xxx

"So this is the Sphinx huh?" I asked, staring at the huge thing which was, apparently guarding the entrance to a McDonalds. "I'm guessing it only stops hero's or monsters huh?"

"Percy, just so you know, it'll probably be forced to leave if we just answer its riddle. There might be a calm and peaceful solution to this." replied Luke, and we both broke into laughter. Ahh, senseless violence. It's okay as long as the goddamn Liberals don't like what you're killing.

The two of us approached him calmly and Tyson followed, although he spent a lot of his time hiding in alleys and sneaking closer. "So, you'd think the giant monsters would be deadlier than what they're serving but...you're just disappointing."Luke told the Sphinx which roared rather pointlessly.

"Answer my riddle or get eated."

Me and Luke shared a gay look. "Are you...retarded?" we asked simultaneously.

"Now...have either of you ever been as far as to see as to know as to do more like?" asked the Sphinx, hitting us with an epic troll face.

"Oh great." muttered Luke, insta face palming. "It's been on the internet. No wonder it's brain has been fried."

"So...if we kill it, it'll be a mercy killing." I replied, equally horror struck...euthanasia...my mortal foe.

"On the plus side, we will still be killing it." said Luke, but his heart wasn't in it either. The conversation went on for about five more minutes, but the Sphinx attacked us and was killed in two. We didn't really notice to be honest. Our dmc's get really intense.(Deep, meaningful conversations.)

xxx

"So...what are you guys going to do now?" asked Tyson nervously. The guy probably could beat the shit out of everything in a five mile radius( assumption: I am not in the five mile radius) but he was terrified of everything in a...half the distance across the universe radius.

"We're trying to find our way around a maze." I replied simply. "However, there are several complications."

"We still don't know how to navigate the damn thing." said Luke, throwing rocks against the wall.

"What's the problem?" asked Tyson, who we probably shouldn't take with us. He would be the biggest and strongest piece of dead weight ever. I considered how to best put this into words even lettuce would understand.

"Well, I guess it's mostly that our eyes can't see what's real in there..." I tried. He looked at me like I was the one with limited brain function.

"Then get new eyes." he suggested.

huh...

Huh...

HUH...

"Luke...what was Adrianne's string really?" I asked. "Because an untrained Princess doesn't really sound like the kind to invent some incredible item."

Luke was also thinking differently now...no longer in a straight route, his thoughts had found an alternate one. "Certain mortals can see through the mist better than others...the ability seems to vary even when there is no real resistance. If we can find someone who can see through the mist completely." He grinned. "We have our string."

"Now we just need to find someone with a skill they won't reveal because lets face it, normal people see ancient Greek monsters all the time." I replied, but I was just being my usual self. At least now we had a vague idea of what we were supposed to do.

"We walk through the streets with our swords out and our monster left overs showing. The second we see someone reacting to the lionfur, horns, swords...we find out just how much they see. Or we just take the big guy along...anyone who can see him for what he really is...is going to react."

Tyson looked a bit hurt, but he understood once I wrapped our reasoning in some lies.

We'll...now we're just going to walk around and hope for the best...

Epic plan.

xxx

"Boring." I said, for about the fifth time.

"Percy, we've only been walking for twenty minutes." replied Luke. "We haven't even started really looking yet, we're just going to get some food." But we had the swords and stuff out anyway just in case.

"You know, I know most people can't really see the full extent of how ridiculous we look, but I do. And the only people who are even competing with us for retards of the week are those idiots over there who are painted gold for some reason..."

**Authors Notes:**

**We need better Trolls. It all went downhill after Prayer Warriors.**

**Also, Percy is a Republican, but he doesn't know of or understand any political issues. So basically, in that regard he's your average voter.**

**Also, Luke and Percy sharing a gay look is the closest this story will come to yaoi. Sorry, but I can't write like that and I'm not going to ruin the fic even further by trying.**

**Next Chapter: LegendScary**


	11. LegendScary

**Brothers By Rage**

**LegendScary**

Just for the record, I'm not sure what the appropriate reaction is when you see two guys, covered in lion fur and wielding swords, followed by a Cyclops. I am pretty damn sure that it's not looking at the guys and saying "You know, you really should clean that fur more often."

I can already see this is not going to be fun.

"So...you're ah...you can see everything huh?" I asked, her complete and utter lack of fear or at least surprise bothering me a bit. Okay, a lot. I did not like being out-calmed. Especially by a girl who has been painted gold.

"You mean the swords, the chains, the horns, the claws, the Cyclops and the blood? Yeah, unless there's even more." she replied, taking out a lollipop. Shit...I'm not even sure that the labyrinth will freak this girl out. Also, as might be quite obvious, me and Luke wore whatever was left after we killed monsters as decorations. Hey, they wore our beads, we wore their limbs. It's pretty much even.

"Well...yes." said Luke, who also tried to figure out what was up with this girl. My first thoughts were that she wasn't mortal, she was some sort of spirit or ancient god. Sure you might say...ancient god in the form of a teenage girl... well remember that episode with Zeus and the girl with the swan fetish? I'm not sure why, but I know it's relevant.

"So...what's up?" she asked. Goddamnit, while we were analysing her, she was counter analysing us! This is not how it's supposed to work!

"Well, we're sort of recruiting you for an epic mission into a place where none can escape madness or death for reasons we can no longer fully remember except for the small fact that I didn't care about them even when I did remember them...sounds fun?" I asked, flashing her a smile.

"And what if I say no to going into whatever you've just described with people I've just met?" she replied, still looking from one random monster souvenir to the next like she still wasn't sure if they were real or not and then taking out a lollipop.

"We can uh..." I began hesitantly. Curses. Negotiations. With a ginger. This would not end well. "Give you lots of not-killing-you with my sword?" I finished lamely. Threatening monsters? No problem. They're not really even threats, more like statements, seeing as I carry most of them out with hilarious prejudice. But threatening people? The way they don't explode into essence kinds of takes the cool out of you cutting them into asymmetric slices.

"You do realize you're in the middle of a public street right?" she asked, calmly sucking on her lollipop.

"Are these men bothering you Miss Dare?" asked a tall suit. Bodyguard? Glorified rich girl chaperone? Equals important or money. If one, well, we'll still take her because it's convenient. If two...well, then I can finally start advancing Kronos's plan.

"We're her friends...from...places." I suggested and snapped my fingers. Let his mist addled mind make of that what it will.

"Of course...I'm sorry to have bothered you." he said, nodding at me and Luke in the traditional I'd-like-to-see-you-try-something way and almost left the visible area. Not bad. I'm guessing bodyguard. She paused the sucking for a moment. The literal one anyway.

"Are you guys Jedi?" she asked sarcastically.

"We're covered in the left over parts of things we've obviously killed...do Jedi do that? Cause it's definitely in our top ten list of things we like to do." I quipped.

Luke laughed and decided to take this conversation into possibly productive routes. "You do realize that you're the only one who sees the things you see don't you? The only one who sees my sword so near your neck? The only one who will see the Cyclops rip an innocent girl to shreds?" Ah. Mindgames. We could threaten her. But that'll get tedious. Probably. Right now we just needed her to keep talking. To keep wondering who or rather, what we were...

"So...the whole, not killing me thing sounds really good now." she commented, still managing to look completely calm. Luke grinned.

"We were kidding. But you are going to help us. And in return we'll give you something you probably won't be able to get anywhere else." She stared, possibly thinking about the implications. "Explanations. We're part of the world only you can see...we can help you make some sense of this...madness."

"Mmm...okay. Let me just go wash this gold paint off first..." she responded. Dammit...still not emotions I can pick up on. Is the girl on drugs or something? Has Twilight and modern music really made people this immune to well...feeling anything?

"Wait, we might be gone for a couple of days. Won't your parents mind?" asked Luke in a voice which suggested that he never used any wax.

"No. I have to disappear for a few weeks before they even notice." she replied nonchalantly.

Me and Luke shared a totally heterosexual look. It said a _lot, A LOT, _about our view of people who decided that their kids are funny little ornaments who only need attention when it suits them.

"Guess we'll first be going to your house then." I said slowly, waiting for the fates to follow this chance up with their usual surprise buttsex. But now, it appears they started drinking in the dark and forgot all about good 'ol Percy Jackson.

"This is not optional." said Luke as she opened her mouth to protest. "Come on...believe me, we are very therapeutic in all doses."

"Have you guys ever really murdered somebody? Not like, a monster or anything, a person?" she asked and finally, we have fear.

"Well, Percy doesn't so much have a zero tolerance policy as...a complete lack of tolerance." answered Luke. "So, yeah. We have murdered people. But those people were generally trying to kill us or doom all humanity. So your dad will be fine. Really, we're only going to scare him a bit..."

She looked torn between two ideas, caught my eye and realized she might be torn by two swords and not get any answers, so she chose the safer option. "Well, okay...I'm Rachael by the way. Rachael Elizabeth Dare."

"Red?" said Luke aloud, but he got no answer.

Limo? She has a limo?

Oh well...we might as well travel in style. With the mist the chauffeur actually thought me and Luke belonged to and thrived in Rachael peer group.

Guess I can add class traitor to my betrayal list.

xxx

We arrived at what shouldn't be called a house. It'll be like calling a mountain an anthill. Holy shit...me and Luke really had to work the mist to convince some of the security that we weren't well...us. And we weren't carrying weapons. Dear lord...this place looked like it could house my entire apartment building.

She led us up to her room, which was way too hipster for my taste.

"Well, I should go and wash the paint off now..." she said nervously.

"I'll just go and talk to your dad." I said sweetly. "Seriously...after I'm done, he'll be much...nicer." Luke shrugged, probably realizing that something about money was directing me here. Sure, I love madness and stabbing, but not that much. Okay, that much. More!

"Do you need help?" he asked, boredly, settling into either a bean bag or a chair made of super flexible wood. Son of the God of thieves...hah. You can only control your blood so long. Luke...well, this might sound a bit unrealistic, but I seriously believe he's so good he could steal the master bolt without Zeus noticing.

"No...I think we'll skip the good cop bad cop thing and just go straight to the deranged ax murderer bit." I replied. Now...to find this fucker.

Servant. Finger snap. Walk on.

He had an office in his house. A motherfucking office in his house. No hiding it as a study, no masquerading that there was some sort of Chinese wall between his family and his work, this guy...well, if I still had the capacity to feel guilt, I would not feel it after my little...talk...with this guy.

My entrance was almost traditional, as I kicked the doors so hard they exploded inwardly.

"Who in the blazes are you young...man?" he finished weakly as I focused my will in the opposite direction...I was now dispelling the mist and he was seeing me for what I really am. And I was letting him see far more than even Rachael could.

"Relax...I promised I won't do any permanent damage...to your body." I told him, my grin maybe just a tad too high on the creepiness scale.

"You..." And calm has been regained! His hand moved towards a button...only to realise that I was too fast. In one leap I was on top of his desk, one arm keeping his in a rather tight embrace, my other holding Backbiter to his neck. For a second, he looked terrified. Then he calmed again. "Very well then...you have my attention. What is it that you want?"

Hah. This is practically a business deal to the guy. Only a lot more transparent.

"Well, I just want to negotiate. Just how much leverage do you think this position gives me?" I asked, trying to get the idea of me killing him for trying anything into his head as soon as possible.

"Quite a lot...but only for as long as you hold it. Once you walk out of this room however..." he let the words trail off...seriously? What kind of idiot tries to rationalize with a fourteen year old psychopath?

"Yeah. Once I walk out of the room I'll have to be able to walk back in. Listen, despite the appearance, I'm not insane. Okay, not fully insane. Okay, I give. I'm insane...but see, I'm still quite capable of backing up all my threats and carrying out plans no one else will dare to do...now, let's look at your options...you can't convince me of anything, because we can both agree I'm not all there and long words make me want to stab a lot, you can't safely just wait until I've gone away, upgrade your security and hope you'll never see me again...because you see Mister Dare...you see..."

I pointed at the potted plant he had in his office. It appears to have been a gift from Rachael...well, it will make this demonstration a lot more compelling. "I want you to think of me as the avatar of time..." He stared, facing whitening, heart racing, chances of cardiac arrest _skyrocketing, _ as the plant started to degrow...it was literally growing younger as we looked, changing into a seedling, a tiny plant, until I finally picked it up and turned it into a seed.

"How did you...trick...you..." Oh dear. His heart is holding, but goddamnit, I gave it a good old stress test.

"Shhh...shhh Mr. Dare...the how is really beyond you." Thank god, a fly choose that point to fly between us...I pointed and it was stuck. No movement. No anything. In mid air. He touched it in a horrified way, trying desperately to find the trick, not finding it, not finding anything...and then at last, turning to stare at me, ashen faced.

"Who are you? _What are you?_" he asked, from the sound of it, mouth completely dry.

"Let's just say I'm the guy who wants something done, and will kill the living shit out of anything which refuses to help me."

And suddenly he's Mister Helpful. "Anything...anything." Strike while the iron is hot...or in this case, while the heart attack from pure fear is still an option.

"I want you to have this built..." I said, taking a piece of paper from a pile, my left hand drawing on it at insane speeds.

"But that's outrageous. You can't have designed something this complex in such a short amount of...time." his voice trailed off again, choking at the end. Ahhh, I was good at this. Silence and a dark smile was the only answer I needed to give. "What...is it...some sort of...bomb?"

"The engineers will see it isn't really a bomb...really, no terrorist could ever use such a weapon. It has a very specific purpose, one they won't see any use for. Except, possibly, to move a mountain. Tell them that. You want to build a golf course or something and a mountain is in the way." I whispered.

"Then what is it for?" he asked, breathlessly.

"Let's just say it's too skew the odds." I answered softly.

He took to staring at me like I would become one of his obedient lackeys if he just stared hard enough. He was regaining his composure...he must not remember having had any when he spoke to me...time to up my game.

"Your eye! What is going on with your eye!" he yelled, backing up against the wall, clutching his heart desperately. Yeah...the thing is, when I lose control or I otherwise reveal what my right eye has become, it sort of gets a little...freaky. To put it simply, my eye appears completely yellow with a black hole in it. And of course you can see things in them...bad things. The things Kronos did when humans were just a silly experiment Prometheus thought up. Well, Kronos had some experiments of his own which would make those sick fucks from the Holocaust hospitals puke. They would make people who lost their faith in humanity regain it, purely because no human will ever, _ever,_ be able to do anything that sick.

"Thing is old man...I look like a teenager. So, you treat me like I'm some sort of dirty thing which should be avoided. But the damnest thing is, I'm older than most of your civilizations. I am older than most of your continents. I am the Titan Lord Kronos."

Woops. Forgot not everyone subscribed to Greek Mythology magazine. Wait, no...it was disbelief...not ignorance. And now...

I made the see turn back into a plant...only, I made it grow bigger, far bigger than it was, so that afterwards he will still see it, and accept that it has changed. "And you will obey me. You do not want me to want to hurt you. Do you?"

I asked. "Your...voice..." he whispered, at the precipice. Time to push.

"You probably still have a few good years left...but unfortunately, I'm going to start compressing them into seconds..." I whispered while pointing my left hand to his face. He stared at his hands as they faded, the veins becoming more pronounced, his hair greyed...liver spots formed randomly. Even his suit was fading and becoming threadbare.

"Please stop! I'll do it! I'll do anything! Just stop!" he cried, sitting down on the floor.

"I know you will. And just to show that I'm not a completely heartless psychopathic murdering titan lord..." Once again I pointed my hand to him and he started getting younger again. Not as young as he was though.

"When you're done...I'll reverse it all. But only once you've moved it where I want it...deal...or no deal?"

He would agree now. He would agree to anything. I will have my little...toy.

xxx

We were camping out in the now abandoned bakery, which probably had a few days left before Oranos would rearm it. I had the second watch, while Rachael was supposed to be able to sleep the whole time. Supposed to.

"You don't really seem like a hero, to be honest." she said, as soon as it was clear Luke and Tyson was asleep.

"Let me guess...you've been talking with Luke while I was sleeping huh?" I asked, taking out my swords. More to make her nervous than for any real purpose.

"Yes...and he told me about the heroic children of the gods. And you." she added like I was a really annoying and hard to read footnote.

"So...you're an environmentalist?" I countered, grinning.

"And you're a deflector." she replied.

"Well, at the moment, so are you. But the difference between us is, you want to talk while I don't really care, I just want to emotionally hurt you. You talk first, then my tale of epic woe shall begin." I said, crossing my swords like most people cross their arms.

"You just want to emotionally hurt me?" she pouted.

"Well, didn't that make you more interested?"

"If you want me to be interested, you want me to talk." she said flatly.

"Quit the back and forth. You care about the environment while watching how daddy rapes it. It's okay though...I've seen your house. You really need the money." I said sarcastically.

"Well, I guess if he was your father you would have killed him long ago huh? But that would have just been a coincidence." she spat back. Damn...I'm, actually starting to like this girl. I laughed aloud at that.

"Luke would have told you Hermes was his dad. Guess who mine is."

She stared at me for a minute. "Well...you're really violent, so that says Ares. But you're also very macabre which suggests Hades. You break, not make, so we can cross out Hephaestus...and you and Luke definitely aren't brothers so not Hermes. You could be a child of Dionysus...you know, sort of like an overly violent drunk or something. Actually, Nemesis sounds likely too, since you're so obsessed with vengeance." I sighed. Guess Luke gave her an oral version of my biography.

"You didn't even name my dad. Poseidon. God of the sea, earthquakes and horses. Although that should probably have turned into cars by now."

"But wasn't he like...one of the good guys?" she asked, trying to appear cute and confused or otherwise unlike a target for my bigass sword. "After a few thousand years, everyone has done enough to qualify as a bad guy." I said with finality.

"Doesn't that depend on what you define as a bad guy?" she asked again, best described by those sick fucks as "sweetly". "Do you define yourself as one?"

"Aren't all the Greek mythology issues a whole lot more interesting than what goes on in my head?" I asked.

"As shocking as this may sound...no." she replied.

"Okay then. I guess I'm anti hero, as I kill a lot and try and make one liners while doing it, but I mostly kill bad guys. Or people who annoy me. Or maybe an anti villain. Anti a lot of things anyway. Most things."

"Ah...and how to you justify it to yourself? Apparently you can be one of the greatest heroes ever, but it sounds like you're just throwing it away."

"I'm the one person I don't have to justify it to." I whispered. "I guess my real so called _problem_ is that I have no real empathy. I lost it all after being stuck alone in a cell for two years. There was also the added factor of some constant pain and other insanity inducing things, but really, in there I convinced myself that the only opinions that matter are my own, that reality is what I make it, ends justify means..." Mmm...I lost my thread at some point here. "You see, there is this idea that people can get stronger by a harsh life...but sometimes they just break and go on and on..."

"Are you...okay?" she asked, as I stayed silent for a long while.

"No. I'm not okay." I said, slinking down. "Go to sleep." This girl made me think. My whole life has turned into one long track of not thinking about certain things.

"But-"

"That isn't a sound people make when they're sleeping." I said threateningly, and she stared at me for a while before falling asleep.

Sigh.

Like a fucking pink elephant.

xxx

"So...do you guys have some sort of plan?" asked Rachael the next morning, again showing that damn calm again.

"Well, other than getting drunk?" asked Luke, taking out and opening a whisky bottle that was probably liberated from the Dare estate.

"Do you think the trade off of coordination vs. fearlessness will be worth it?" I asked, realizing that I had skipped the whole teenage drinking phase and this would be my first taste of alcohol.

"Well, I haven't got any better ideas." said Luke sadly, taking a swig and handing me the bottle. "At the very least, this will make us harder to mind fuck. Don't worry." he added to Rachael. "You're immune."

I took a cautious sip, then a large gulp. "Fuck Luke it tastes like piss! Evil piss! Evil, bitter piss!" I coughed out, heart burning, the rest of my body pretty much staring and laughing.

"Yeah...yeah it does." responded Luke, taking a large gulp himself. "That's why we have to mix it with Coke or anything which doesn't taste like this. Unfortunately, we don't have time. That should be enough...we just want to feel light-headed and harder to confuse...stumbling will get us killed."

Me and Luke each grabbed one of Racheal's shoulders and closed out eyes. Sure, he could probably project the images directly to our minds, but it'll be easier to remind ourselves that it isn't real with our eyes closed. And our heads beneath the blankets. And with Tyson holding my other hand. Sigh...what the hell is our long term plan here?

"Can you see where we should go?" I asked.

"Well, I think so, there's this brightness in the one direction and-"

"Less talking, more moving quickly through the insanity spreading halls." said Luke bitterly, although his voice suggested that he was also thinking what I was thinking. It's hard to gauge distance when your eyes are closed, but Minos must have been otherwise indisposed because we were making good time and our minds were safe.

Me and Luke simultaneously let go of Rachael.

"Someone else is also moving around in here." I said, taking the role of captain obvious upon myself.

"Yeah...and Minos would always first target the larger group." added Luke. We were making good time, getting past most things with Racheal repeatedly muttering about the "light getting brighter."

"Stop..." whispered Luke. "Do you guys here that?"

"Nope..." I whispered back. Tyson however, seemed to pause and take in sounds that I couldn't even hear.

"Lord Oranos said the would come from this side...they have taken in point 12..." he said. Not his voice though.

"Oh yeah...they can perfectly mimic voices." said Luke musingly.

"Do we have enough force to stop them?" asked...Clarisse?"These aren't people to underestimate."

Now I was hearing the sounds of people trying to move silently to. Luke grabbed Racheal and I pushed Tyson into a side alley. Huh...that's a lot of enemies...usually an opportunity, but right now an inconvenience. We would have been able to stay hidden. But then...well then she sneezed. I grabbed her and quickly put my hand over her mouth. "Do that again and I'll kill you." I smiled back at me. What is wrong with this girl?

She nodded back and put her finger over her lips but the damage was done. They pretended they didn't realize we were there, moving themselves into better and better positions.

Oh freaking great.

"So...famous last stand or do we submit?" I asked Luke softly.

"Percy, this is no place for a last stand. Considering where we are...no, this might actually work for us. We're close to the arena." he replied.

Ah. An arena which is now probably holding an army.

Any further discussions were cut short by a huge bitch and an electric spear.

xxx

Clarisse was grinning at us, her eyes alight with more joy than I thought was fair. "At last..." she breathed. "I get to kill you and your deaths will actually solve another problem I've been having."

I turned to Luke. "What's your take on this?"

"We can probably get out of this. But Red's dead if we try. And Tyson...well maybe if he gets angry he'll be helpful, but most likely he'll die too. Still, it might be worth a try. We'll definitely be able to kill her at least." he answered, shrugging. We were surrounded, outnumbered and outweaponed. All we had more of was style. And one liners. We will always have more one liners.

Clarisse laughed but it sounded forced. Like she would really prefer to be screaming. "No, even surrounded by monsters and demigods, in a maze which you have no hope of escaping...you're still arrogant. I'm so going to enjoy watching you die."

"So...are you the head of this little army or just the latest recruit?" asked Luke, smiling at the...half bee half man Thing which was trying to act like it could take him.

"Oranos is the leader. Come now...and you both finally get what you want. All the attention is going to be on you. Come." she repeated, gesturing for us to follow, some snake people hesitantly placing their spears at my back. Even Tyson had someone threatening him.

If Luke was right though, there'll be some more family time up ahead.

"Hey, did this maybe belong to your dad?" I asked a snakeperson, holding out a claw. "Cause that would be pretty awkward. And this horn?" I asked, turning slightly to a Rhinoman, "Are you related to it?"

Ah, when in Rome.

"We need them alive." Clarrise told the offending monster angrily. "Believe me...they'll get what's coming to them."

Hey, this is almost worth not putting up an epic fight.

xxx

Okay...giant arena, dad's symbol flaunted above thousands of skulls, lots of pissed off monsters, evil beings whom I'm guessing are titans and some half bloods staring at me from the stands. Show time. The titan Oranos stood. Nice...love the effect. He had long silver hair and wore grey robes. Some gold on his right hand... when men try to envision gods in their minds, this is the picture that comes up.

He probably could have just blasted Antaeus out of the way and into hell, but I had a feeling those pesky Ancient Laws were in effect again.

"To our gracious host," he said, bowing towards the giant. "We have been saving this just for you. One of the deadliest halfbloods of all time as well as your own half brother, Perseus Jackson." I walked into the arena floor waving.

"Thank you! Thank you!" I yelled. "I'll be here until each and every one of you is dead! Or if my arms get tired I might escape early! Either way, most of you are fucked!"

Silence for a few seconds, followed by Antaeus's laughter. "The boy's got guts! Our father must be proud of that at least. Very well...show me what you can do. What weapon can I offer you, or will you be sticking to your tongue?" he spat down at me, his stomach reminding me of jelly.

I grinned and took Riptide out of my pocket. I'd prefer not to use Backbiter in front of the titans it killed. That would just be...tacky. No wait, incredibly stupid. Yeah, that's it.

"Aren't you worried that he might die? Thought he was pivotal to your plans or something." said Antaeus offhandedly, grinning at Oranos.

"I'm afraid not. The lady Thalia is almost a full year older than him." answered Oranos with a bow. Well...some millennia in Tartarus definitely teaches you humility. Or at least gives you the ability to do anything to get revenge.

Antaeus grunted in response and made a hand signal that the thing I'm going to kill should be released.

An armoured snake woman walked into the room, hissing at me, net in one hand, trident in the other. Really? REALLY?

I seriously have to make more people aware of my rep.

"Show me what you got _brother!_" said Antaeus, almost spitting out the last word.

Grinning, I ducked, weaved and decapitated it in five seconds.

"NO!" he yelled. "DON'T FINISH UNTIL I SAY SO! NO ONE DIES UNLESS I COMMAND IT!"

"I'm just playing around...don't blame me that he's sending such breakable things at me...heck, even I can't put up a worthy show without competition _brother_." I answered, pointing at Oranos.

Antaeus made an odd noise. "Boy might be right. His next opponent better take him a while...well, let's see the son of Hermes." I strutted back to our little corner and gave Luke a fist bump.

"Don't worry...we'll get you out of this. Probably." I whispered to Rachael, who _still _appeared calm.

"The not worrying is taking more and more effort." she whispered back, causing me to smile. What the hell is wrong with me?

"So...I heard your sword skills are legendary." said Antaeus. "Hopefully your death will also be. Are you going to dazzle us with your sword or will you show us some different skills to start us off?"

"Guess I'll start with the sword...it's what I'm the best at...and when you're the best in the world at something...well, it tends to be a showstopper." answered Luke, grinning as his sword appeared in his left hand.

"Um...the whole him being the best in the world thing is still being debated." I added quickly, over the cheers and jeers of the crowd. Some people...um...people things were throwing rocks at me, but they stopped when I started throwing them back harder and they realized Oranos would be _very_ cross if I'm injured in a boring way.

Luke grinned and turned to look at the entrance...where a centaur entered from. His face fell. Poor guy...unlike me, he still has some empathy. And killing monsters...well, it's a lot more satisfying than killing something which has a personality, much less a nice if sometimes irritating one.

The centaur, which looked half starved and agitated charged Luke, who leapt forwards and knocked it off its legs. He then kicked it hard in the head, jumped on its back and held the sword to its neck with one hand. With an expression I couldn't fully place he looked up to Anteaus, who nodded. One second. One slice. Oh well...guess I'm up again.

"My turn." I said, walking back into the arena. "Well, other than providing us with some light exercise, is there any point to the level of monster you're sending us at the moment?" I asked Oranos. "Or do you just want to show your complete and utter lack of respect?" I added, smiling at my half brother.

Oranos snapped his fingers and some half blood walked in. "He has only one eye...do I really have to fight a disabled guy?" I asked, causing the one eye guy to charge. "It seems like it's not worth risking good troops to give you a show." I added to my bro, who threw Oranos an odd look.

The eye wasn't as big a disadvantage as I thought. He managed to last a full 20 seconds before he took his permanent vacation in the underworld.

"I'm getting bored with this..." I commented. "As are the easily slayable things in the stands. So...Anteaus...are we going to fight each other or are you a fucking pussy?" Anteaus, who was looking furious, probably about me not waiting for his OK before committing homicide, laughed.

"I will indeed fight tonight. You have my word. But I may not be fighting you." He sat back and leered at me.

"I will be fighting the victor between you and Luke."

**Authors Notes:**

**Well...yeah. So, I've been spelling Oranos as, well, Oranos for quite some time now. This is mainly due to the fact that I think the name is only mentioned twice in PJO, and he was one of my favourite Major gods in AOM, where they spelt it as I do. Also, it sounds beter. Ouranos sounds like some particularly unpleasant oranges. It appears that if you use Ouranos you should also use Crounos and if you use Kronos, it's paired with Oranos or Uranos. (Oranos + Uranos = Ouranos?). Either way, I'm guessing archaeologists use Google translate way too much.**

**Next chapter the titans get their screen time. The only titan I feel Rick did not do justice to (overlooking the obvious hur dur Grover can turn Hyperion into a tree part) was Prometheus. So he's not going to be like his book counterpart at all. Seriously. A coward who tried to avoid battles? Discussing things around tables? Sure the punishment might have changed him, sure the fire episode thing might have been some clever gamble, but seriously, his life can be summarised as:**

**Zeus: Seriously Prometheus, don't give fire to the humans. You're like, the last titan and we will fuck you up if you do that. So don't. Goddamnit Prometheus stay away from the sun...okay okay, you can go to the sun, just don't take any of the fire, okay, you have the fire just don't give it to the humans WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?**

**Prometheus: Come at me bro.**

**On a slightly more depressing note, this will probably be the last update until July. I might be able to get one or two up before then (in the week of vacation I have between the two epic study sessions), but this weekly update thing I've got going on is not sustainable while I'm studying.**

**TL;DR – I spell Oranos like it's spelled in Age Of Mythology. I'm changing Prometheus's character to something like a cross between the Joker and Light. This fic didn't suddenly die. It's going into a coma...there might be some spastic updates, but normal updates will only resume in July. The story is almost completely written however(RAW), so it will be finished then. Until then, tootles and thanks for the reviews. **

**Next Chapter: Brothers By Rage**


	12. Prometheus Unbound

**Brothers By Rage**

**Prometheus Unbound**

Antaues was grinning at us like he had just thrown us an unhitable curveball.

"Hey Luke..." I began nonchalantly. "Do you think "well-played" or "dick move bro" would be better suited to this situation?"

"I would have sticked to insults, mostly regarding his weight and intelligence...still...at least this won't be boring." replied Luke, shaking his head and rolling his arms.

Yeah, brilliant gambit fucker. Pin two best friends together...the emotion, the drama, the fact that they've been sparring together forever and can read each other like Kindles! Guess dick move is much better suited than well-played then.

"My Lord Antaues" began Clarisse, going down on one disgusting cellulite riddled knee. "I would consider it an honour to fight either of these...people...for you." Woah. Realized any insult would make it seem like less of a show.

"Shut up Clarisse, you aren't part of this. And if you were, it would be a five second part which you would regret for the rest of your life. Except you wouldn't, cause you'd be dead." I snapped, taking out Riptide.

She wanted to respond, but was silenced when Luke attacked me full throttle. He managed to bring the sword all the way over my head, before pirouetting, and slashing at me again. I responded by sliding down to one knee, causing the swing to miss me completely.

For those of you who have not gotten this point yet, Luke is _fast._ But then again, he's still...him.

On his next swing I pivoted and threw my neck into a direct line of contact with his sword. He panicked and acted like he slipped to avoid looking like he didn't take a chance to kill me.

"Huh...guess you are less co-ordinated than a malfunctioning gps." I quipped lightly.

"Dirty trick." he shot back. "Then again, you don't stand a chance against me in a fair fight. Or a half fair fight. Now, at around one eighth fair you begin to stand a chance, but not enough that I would bet on you."

We had both stopped, standing directly opposite each other, each holding his sword directly in front of him. This time, I charged, feinting going right before jumping left and bringing my sword down at him at an angle. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into his knee, winding me and this time, his sword was going at my neck. Guess someone is a bit pissed...

I snapped my body back, causing the sword to swing over me, before bringing my entire body back to deliver an epic headbutt. Unfortunately Luke jumped causing it to go into his less concussion able chest.

Well, I really can't outfight Luke in my current situation. For one thing, I specialise in using two very particular swords, mostly because I have balance issues with my weapons. Secondly, my best chance at outfighting Luke is the fact that I'm physically stronger than him, and that means really hurting him is the only way I will get the edge.

This is like that awkward moment when you realize the retard ( Antaues) actually had a good idea. Because this IS that awkward moment when the retard (again, Antaues) had a good idea.

I dove forward again, parrying Luke's sword and grabbing his other hand in a way that was _still _totally hetero. I tried pulling him into my knee but he literally jumped on my knee, flipped over me and slashed at the back of my head. Yoda be damned. I managed to parry behind my head and go into a ground spin, kicking out at Luke who jumped over my leg and brought down his sword in quick fashion three times, the last of which I only barely blocked, before I could kick him away.

I stood shakily as he lay on his back...goddamn showmanship. In true Shawn Micheals style he flew back unto his feet and charged back into me.

The next few minutes were a confused blur...we knew we couldn't fake this forever. So both of us were treating it like a real fight...and the crowd was loving it. Monsters were screeching, Antaues was applauding( and looking a bit nervous) and Oranos was smiling softly. This was a _show_.

"Time for the plot twist!" whispered Luke, and kicked me away. He strode towards Antaues, before suddenly smashing his sword into the wall and jumping upwards, grinning at the masses. "Are you not entertained?" he yelled, all showman, acting like he was the offspring of completely hetero man sex between Spartacus and the rock.

"Indeed! You two are delightful." answered Anteaues, sneering down at Luke. "But if you think that'll make me let both of live...well."

"Good thing that wasn't the plan then." said Luke, twisting his body and throwing me bodily into the stands as I took a running jump towards him. I almost didn't make it but somehow, I was there, standing in front of Antaues with a shit eating grin and more importantly a neck slicing sword...

My sword went straight into Antaues's fat stomach, causing an explosion of...

Sand?

Dafaq did I just see?

"Overeager aren't we?" said Antaues, laughing as he stood, grabbing two giant clubs. Grinning, he pushed me back into the arena. "Well, I had hoped to fight you honourably. But since you acted without honour first..." He laughed, and signalled to a few of his guards, who jumped into the ring before he also made the plunge.

Wow...suddenly surrounded by a whole lot of things which want to kill me...and a whole lot of things which were supposed to be guarding Tyson and Rachael... Oranos was glaring at me, trying to figure out how he could twist this into something he could use. There was less hope of that than an original idea has of getting on TV.

That's when the impossible happened. Tyson had a good idea, and jumped into the arena grabbing Luke and jumping out. "Stay there!" I yelled, before he could try and come get me too. Only one of us is leaving this...and the smart money isn't on me. Heck, at this point, I'd be surprised if the stupid money or even the retarded money is on me.

"Come on brother! Show me how a son of Poseidon dies!" bellowed Antaues, grinning behind his superior numbers. And, as much as I hate to admit this, his superior hygiene. Stupid spelunking.

"You know, in our current situation, that's really open to interpretation..." I said. I looked at the place where Luke and Tyson were clearing guards with ease...trouble was, they weren't Oranos's guards. My guess is he's waiting till this goes more south than Mexico and then, only when Antaues offers him safe passage through the arena will he help.

Well, since I didn't use to arena's magic to call Riptide the first time...I should still have one choice left.

Backbiter.

A sort of shocked awe ran through the arena as I suddenly held the blade in the arena, most of Oranos's troops recognizing it for what it was... and remembering what it did last time.

So, an immortal titan of untold power just saw me draw the blade which was used to castrate him and then torture him for millennia. Not even I can make that sound funny or brave instead of just full on retarded. But, there is always a silver lining. Or possibly an arsenic lining or some other poisonous metal.

Luke, Tyson and Racheal were in one place. More importantly, they had a clear path out of here. I don't know where to, but at the very least, it's not here. To me at least, that makes what's going to happen worth it. Luke looked at me beseechingly, eyes begging me to plead for him to save me, the rest of him already accepting what has to be done. "Finish the job! I'll keep them busy!" I yelled. He nodded, grabbed Racheal, who had moved, and ran. Hopefully their tunnel actually leads somewhere without more lethal things. Even better if it happens to be safer.

Oh well...time to steal everyone's eyes in a 200 foot radius.

Or better yet...consider the riddle...you are surrounded by close to untold numbers of evil minions, a smattering of titans and one absolute being, who in his prime could erase you from existence without even the semblance of effort.

Do you...

A – Run like fuck

B – Give up and Die

C – Make yourself the biggest target ever and hope the crossfire wipes out everyone?

If you chose anything but C, enjoy your sanity. Maybe you can trade it in for coupons or something.

"Hey Oranos!" I yelled, sprinting to the centre of the now crumbling arena. "Ready to have your dick cut off again you limp bearded fuck!"

Bonus points for waving around the sword that was used for the previous castration.

For a second, I was at peace, since it felt like everything paused and drew in its breath. I could even hear Luke facepalming in the tunnel. Serenity. Tranquillity.

And then...

"KILL HIM!"

Just as planned.

Too bad the plan was fucking insane.

Arrows flew, guns and cannons went off, some of the braver monsters even took flying jumps towards me. But all of it was second to the wrath of Oranos...all the plans...all the waiting...had been ruined by the mere sight of Backbiter. He yelled and something like pure energy flew at me in a malicious jet. Bracing myself I crossed my swords in front of me and for the first time in...I don't even know how long, I wanted to pray. There would be no dodging. No making this effect me less. There would only be the part where I brace myself and the next part where I die.

Okay...what happened next is hard to explain. I'm pretty sure what Oranos did was the badass equivalent of a force push, possibly constrained by Ancient Laws or some such shit. And what with the solid wall behind me, I had no real option other than die. Okay, maybe I could survive and try to take on a few thousand monsters with my bones broken and my internal organs ruptured but I'd have sticked to option 1.

Too bad the wall somehow melted and I flew through into a single fist, which sent me rocketing into a new room. And again and again and again...I was being thrown around like a football...or possibly a potato. This went on for a while, until I fell, sprawling into a room.  
>Filled with monsters of the worst sort and a guy chilling in the corner, reading.<p>

Well, the monsters can be handled.

"Fucking...whatever that was lag." I muttered, jumping right into it, beheading a half rhino thing, which had mouths all over its body. The things here were...let's just say they will never be accused of incest, since their parents were probably never from the same species, sometimes not even from the same planet, and some just looked like they were the results of an orgy involving several people, animals and common household objects.

Strangely enough, the guy sitting quietly in the corner reading was bothering me a heck of a lot more.

"So...are you going to stop reading at any point? Because believe me, when I'm involved in violence it tends to escalate." I said, causally dismissing some random mesmerized bird/aeroplane/plant thing by removing its...top part. Damn, still moving...commence with the repeated stabbing of the bottom part.

He grinned up at me. "You know, Gods don't really understand anything...they just sort of copy...you know, like when you're cramming for a test, except you don't have to cram, all the knowledge is all ready inside of you , all the knowledge that comes with insight is there, if the knowledge exists in a human mind, it exists in the gods, and they can use that knowledge, and all the insight that can possibly come from it...without ever having that insight." the guy said, idly flicking his long black hair out of his sight line.

"Fucking fascinating. Now come closer so I can stab you." I said, now wrestling with a giant killer bee with a wolf's head, whose stinger was caught between my swords and about...oh, I'll say, half an inch away from my chest.

"Like that automation behind you...why should it be bronze? That's a terrible metal for combat...so soft...and why does he keep repeating the same designs? Why, in short, can't he design for shit?" the guy asked, scribbling away in the book, which I noted was less a book and more a collection of stapled pages with the word Feyman written on them.

Said automation was not as faulty or as "soft" as I had hoped and was about to make a pretty decent attempt at decapitating me when the guy lifted his hand and fireblasted the living shit out of it.

"Okay...not big on the history of the titans, or other bits of dust beneath history's furry shag rug, so can I maybe get a name? An intro? A list of your weaknesses?" I asked, stabbing the bee whose wings had been burned off.

He laughed at me. Or possibly with me. No social skills remember?

"Well, I'm still in mid rant, so you can shut the fuck up and let me finish. So, you get this world right, where Hephaestus can make freaking anything, but show him a blueprint or a circuit diagram and you'll be lucky if he doesn't make some sort of perpetual paper air-plane from it. Ask him why it works, and he won't have an answer _because he's never needed one._"

"Is this supposed to mean anything to me? Cause really, all I'm hearing is unending variations of "stab me please"." I pondered aloud, now going claw to sword with this a raven headed spider who had six very lovely and shiny claws. Wait, six? Does that mean it's technically a beetle or something?

"Because what he does...is think of what he wants to build, and then...it's built. Some part beyond him can take bronze and turn it into anything, yet he remains as stupid and bland as..." He paused for a moment and looked thoughtful. "You're going to have to help me kid...all my references will be based on way ancient Greece and will probably be lost on you...any ideas on how to finish that comparison?"

"You could just say as stupid and bland as your average person...that way it's timeless." I noted, removing two of the Beetle/Spider's legs and going for a third.

"Yeah...I've been reading the Gettysburg address. Not linked to its time at all, yet so...timeless. Yeah. That's the word. I should probably look into that kind of thing." he muttered absentmindedly. Then he smiled at me, and went back to his reading while I fought with what appeared to be a catish...monkey? Something with really long arms and claws at the end okay?

"So ah...you seem immortal...and I seem flammable...where do we go from here?" I asked, as a swing of Riptide hopefully updated the monster extinction list.

"Well, introductions are the polite way to go. I am Prometheus, the titan of foresight, the saviour and creator of man..."

"Oh yeah...the guy who spent the past two millennia being curb stomped by an eagle. Wow, the intimidation factor just took a sharp drop." I said, twirling my sword over my head in my patented "come at me bro" style.

He gave me a dark smile. "Yes well...the punishment was only supposed to extend for a thousand years after which I would have been allowed some...semblance of freedom...but you know the gods. No time for fairness, or common sense or finding things which aren't family to fuck." He looked weird while saying it, as if he didn't particularly enjoy some sort of memory.

"So...no reason for the sentence's length changing? Because I would have guessed your personality." I pondered aloud. "No reason at all. You may not have noticed but they are pretty much one big happy family of dicks." Answered the titan.

"Oh believe me I have noticed. It's quite a prominent feature on my blog." I replied, taking care of the last of the monsters.

"Do you play chess?" he asked, pulling a glass set from nowhere and striding up to me, a table and two chairs appearing out of nowhere.

"Once or twice. It's more Annabeth's game. I played her sometimes, when we were stuck in one place for a long time." I said, once again with that goddamn wistfulness I can't seem to shake off.

"A person like you won't accept the limit of pieces...you can see possibilities, plot what your opponent is doing...but the sheer frustration of each of his pieces being equal to each of your pieces...not a nice feeling?" he asked playfully, setting up the board. One half was clear, the other was dyed blood red. He sat down and impatiently motioned for me to sit.

"Seriously? My friends are possibly dying, I'm being searched for by things that makes Chuthullu looks like god of the month, and you want me to play chess?" I asked.

"Yep." he said lightly, making his first move. "Since the alternative is immolation."

God damn Sicilian opening.

Dammit...guess I might as well play.

The play was slow, with me making moves I kept hoping weren't stupid and him concentrating extremely hard and making just plain...weird moves.

"The thing about Oranos...is he's probably an excellent tactician in his own right. Don't really know since he was slaughtered pretty early in Kronos's little upraising. But he'll always go for the material advantage before starting to try to win the game... and that's why he lost to Kronos. He was still preparing his forces, readying himself, ensuring he would win...when Kronos pretty much walked in and won...get it?"

The guy was a full on dick. Seriously. Each of his pieces appeared undefended, but he would follow up with either a pin, or a discovered check or...something. I just kept up the strategy I always used against Annabeth. Defend all my pieces and hope she makes a mistake.

"So, Kronos, don't know if you've laid eyes on him yet, that guy, would play the entire game with a single epic checkmate in mind. At the very brink of defeat...or when his opponent doesn't see it at all...that's where he wants to win...that's where he lives. And in some way, he loves it. It isn't just his nature...it is him."

Okay...this was messed up...he appeared to be losing all his pieces on purpose. Even I could win if the other guy had only his pawns and a horsey.

"Now, the thing about Zeus is, he thinks in straight lines. There is a war between himself and Oranos. Therefore, anyone is either working for Oranos or himself. Oranos will also think so, but simply because he cannot fully trust you, he will never use you. So, Zeus thinks you're either his or Oranos's and Oranos believes you will either be Zeus's or dead. So they think they've gotten you all figured out. But...you know, chess has only two real players."

Somehow, a single pawn had snuck through everything and queened itself, instantly putting me in check.

"But that's good. That's how it should be. When it comes to gods, there should be a good and there should be an evil. Not little splinter groups with joke definitions or stupid self serving points."

Check. Capture. Check. Capture. Check...

The entire board was set up, waiting for that queen, who just had to finish. Every check led to another capture to another check to another capture.

"And, you see, I think Oranos isn't really in this war. I think that he might have a superior force, he might have an...overwhelming material advantage." He smirked over at my side of the board. "But I also think that someone else has been pushing a little pawn hoping he'll become a god slaying queen. I think this world is being set up for..."

I made two desperate moves, trying to break his pattern. Guess that was part of the pattern too.

"A fall. Oranos...Zeus...they're leaders, but so goddamn stupid. So predictable...so...so...human. Something gods shouldn't be. But what it comes down too..." The entire board was cleared. Just the two kings and his queen and another pawn. Which was black. Which is weird, what with us playing with clear and red pieces.

"Is the third player. That's the one I'm wondering about..." he twirled his hands, and brushed his hair again, and for the first time, he looked angry and like an immortal. "So...there is this me right...wondering who's really playing...because, I want Kronos back. I want that motherfucker to keep a promise he made me...I want a world where I can be me again..."

Prometheus was staring at the piece now, which was changing from red to clear to black, melting, twisting... "This world...it's time for something new...something different than gods, something which isn't Titans. Kaos still exists...Erebus has risen...the old guard still waits...what are gods Percy?"

I was two moves away from check mate. Unless that pawn turned red, I lost. It was as simple as that.

"They are not titans." I answered, because by now, practically everyone has been drilling that shit into my head.

"And to humans, that is everything. But to you..." he asked, grinning like a devil.

My body moved again, adjusting my posture. Prometheus grinned as I did: he noticed whose posture it was, who was controlling the body.

"Well...you figured it out. No one else did, and as you have said, no one else is likely to." My mouth spoke. My eyes were closed and I was speaking. Except it wasn't me who was controlling the larynx.

"Lord of foresight remember...even Apollo can't see everything...but he is a god. I am a titan and sometimes, I use other things than my powers to work things out." answered Prometheus with a grin. "But there is one tiny detail that I just can't seem to figure out...can we win this time?"

"We stand far less of a chance than we did when you betrayed me last." I responded coldly. However, Prometheus didn't really appear phased.

"You know, stuck to that rock...I started thinking. And I realised that the punishment would have been acceptable, even bearable...if only it was due to me doing what I believed in. If only some part of me could still smirk like a motherfucker and go "worth it!" even as that fucking eagle tore my liver out every day. But what did I want? Sure, humans got fire, sure the advancement I sought happened...but really, my actions and my punishment weren't related. I was a traitor, and was punished as one. Even the gods I saved wanted to punish me." He paused and looked at us, in an oddly defiant way. "This time, I plan to act so that there will be no punishment whatsoever...tell me your plan Kronos. In full. Or your little pawn learns what it feels like to fight a knight."

I stared at him, silently wondering. Then Kronos told him the plan. It could still work. It made more sense now. It was the plan I had given everything for, just because it gave me hope once.

"I like the plan...if it works, it works. If it doesn't, I'll just pretend I didn't know and spend eternity in a lot less discomfort than you." responded Prometheus. "Young Percy Jackson...all our hopes rest in you and I really hope you do pull it off...but I'm not going to be risking my head for you."

"You've already made some sort of deal with Zeus as well haven't you?" asked Kronos drily.

"Oh indeed." answered Prometheus. "Each side thinks me loyal only to them. I do care a bit about who wins, and really, I'm rooting for you Kronos...but no matter who wins, I'm sure as fuck not going to be on any other side and there sure as fuck won't be another eagle or another rock."

My body seemed to consider that for a moment. "Go to a man called Dare. You'll probably find him quickly enough if you just use Google. He owns fucking everything. Correct or improve the plans I left him...doubtless you'll be able to. Then...we simply have to wait as Percy advances up the ranks." said Kronos.

"Huh...well, I'll see what I can do. If I'm right, unless you pull that little trick off Zeus is going to lose for sure..." He grinned again. "And too early. I want this drawn out. I want this to be long and deadly...I want everybody to hate everybody so that afterwards..." He laughed again.

"We can't use the Labyrinth. Oranos has a much greater ability to exploit its abilities than we do. It's a risk to leave it intact." continued Kronos.

"Then you blow it the fuck up." answered Prometheus. "There's a man called Daedulus...kill him, and it ends." He lifted his finger and a bright flame shot out, making a trail as it sped off. "Follow the yellow flame road Percy Jackson. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go pretend to be an idiotic bowing sycophant again. My lord." He ended, giving an ironic bowing and walking out.

I felt Kronos leave me again...fuck. Any longer and I would have started charging him rent.

And shit...I probably could just activate the self destruct sequence, but as it happens, I have a couple of friends alive inside this fucking place...possibly. Luke might have figured we should try and regroup top side.

Screw it. I'm blowing it up anyway.

xxx

Ah...pretty. Annabeth would love this place. The quarters of Daedulus bespoke of the man he was. Simple. Elegant. Everything an inventor or architect or whatever this fucker was could possibly need.

No music though, so I give it six out of ten.

"So...you are Perseus Jackson?" asked a man, sitting in a chair, half sprawled over notes he kept writing on, crossing things out and rewriting, not even bothering to look up while he wrote. In case you're wondering, the things looked complicated. And personal. Like it was written in his shorthand's shorthand.

"Think of me as euthanasia. To ease the sting, I suggest you start suffering." I quipped getting ready to strike the fool down.

"You think I'm scared boy? Oranos has been chasing me for months. I have nowhere left to hide. I will either be killed by you, or kept alive so that he can pillage and bend and burn everything I hold dear, so that every creation I have ever made will be used by him. So that my entire life work is a perverted mess serving only the titan lord. Shocking as this may seem, I will prefer the former." he said defiantly. However, the still not looking up part kind of lessened the effect.

"So...your response is to write things down very slowly? While thrillingly creative, I can see you reputation as a genius is less an exaggeration and more of a complete fuck up." I commented, raising my sword above his head.

"I'm trying to finish my life's work boy. Give me an hour. Oranos should be here by then in any case. Then you can take my head." he replied irritably.

"Yeah...unless you can invent something which will give me your deathwish, I am sure as fuck not gonna stay here till Oranos comes. Sorry bro, I'm real happy for you, and you probably were one of the best...inventors or architects or whatevers of all time, but I'm not gonna let you finish." I stepped forward in a mantastic way only to be jumped by (quite possibly) the mother of all hellhounds. Only the fact that my sword was already raised allowed me to feint at it and stop it from ripping my throat out in one move. I keep stabbing at its mouth, which didn't really help seeing as its paws were swatting me down and ripping nice gashes. Real art deco. I managed to stab it through its one paw, but this thing was tough and went for the kill.

Fuck that is one unpleasant growl.

"Oh well...guess I'll have to commit suicide then." said Daedulus, still with the goddamn writing. Did...did he just automatically assume it'd lose? Oh you are so dead now giant hellhound.

The hellhound thrust out with its jaws...too bad it expected me to act sane, or even borderline sentient and not jump into its mouth. The thing about jaws is...they can't close if I sword is inserted like this. And the other thing about being in a mouth is...you're usually very close to the brain. Riptide in the jaws. Backbiter through the brain.

Still, the stupidity almost caught up with me, as the whole dying part was accompanied by its jaws snapping shut as it disintegrated.

Guess my nightmares just got their new sound effects.

"Sit Mrs.O Leary." said Daedulus tiredly, completely misreading the situation. It was on the same level of thinking as reckoning To Kill A Mockingbird was a hunting guide. Or that the twilight series was actually good.

I quietly strolled up to him and raised my sword above his head as the moment froze and some sort of god appeared in front of me...a literally two faced god.

"You stand at a crossroads, young Perseus Jackson." came the first face.

"You stand exactly between good and evil." continued the second.

Okay...okay. Sure, you can fuck with me. Zeus, Hades...come at me bro's. Apollo...flick your hair and mock my complexion. Artemis...be...well, Artemis. But the one thing I won't let any...ANY of these fuckers too...is pretend that they can judge me, that they had any control or influence over what I'm doing.

"You must know that one way will give you only pain." said the first face.

"Whilst the other will temporarily give you greater pain, but ultimately, salvation." went the second face.

I know two things, Janus.

1 – Anything a useless play like you can ever tell me

2- You're going to die. I don't know how, I am not even halfway sure about the why...but I'm going to fucking kill you.

"A better question is..." I began snidely. "Why the fuck aren't you advising me NOT to take the path that will not result in you being a pile of bloody goo for the next few millennia? ARE YOU REALLY THAT FUCKING STUPID! I bet you, face one, let's call you serious Sam, is going be all like, no our duty defines us, we are a god, you can't understand mortal! , while light hearted Larry over there (face 2) will be chirping on about how being a pile of goop is fun!"

Serious Sam was looking...well, serious (named like a boss) while Light hearted Larry was acting like I was a crazy guy who should be ignored, than thoroughly smited. Possibly into a pile of goop.

"Our duty is what defines us!" yelled Sam, before he suddenly realized what he said.

"Yes. And I'm sure the fucking piles of you that are left afterwards will be proud of what you have done." I spat back before I actually realized just how right Prometheus was. Gods are stupid. But it's more than that. They can be summarised, placed in a box and left there for a few centuries and you can open it and they'll just be the same. So very fucking same. Maybe in a more colourful shirt, maybe with several tweets to tweet but still...the same. No God can really create. No God can change. No God can live.

What the fuck am I thinking?

"Maybe there's always been a third choice...or a fifth choice..." I looked up into the god's eyes, who were grinning now, thinking that somehow, if I make any choice, they will win. The grin faded a bit when the hand of Kronos went thrusting into his chest.

"Here's my choice" I said, swinging Backbiter in an arc through Janus's throat with my other hand. Actually, my only hand now that I think about it.

Janus was contorting, spilling golden blood, trying to achieve his true immortal form...that or dying.

Yep it was dying.

Guess the whole immortal thing was pretty inaccurate?

"Janus, relax. You really had no purpose ever. See, people were doing the same things over and over again, making the same choices. Sure it's hard for every new person, but isn't that how a play is supposed to make you feel? The delightful lull of repetition? New repetition? And you know the thing about the play we're doing right now?"

At this point, I probably had no real idea anymore about what I was doing or saying. Crazy? Yeah, I went batshit insane at some point. But it's okay! It's bearable! It's so totally me right now! I can just keep doing what the scary voices want me to!

"The thing about this play is...I'm burning the stage, sleeping with the extras, shooting the director and redesigning the fucking wardrobe..._BUT THE SHOW WILL GO ON!"_

**Authors Notes:**

**Back. Unless I have to rewrite one of my subjects( which is unfortunately a possibility) I will start finishing this story now. I changed the name of the chapter after reading Prometheus bound. It's a pretty good play. Also, a pretty sad scene from history is parodied here. Bonus points if you can find it. Not as much as waving around a titan castrating sword, but still. Points.**

**Next Chapter: Promises, Promises**


	13. Promises Promises

**Brothers By Rage**

**Promises Promises**

There is something beautiful about a sword swinging and a neck splitting. To the right kind of mind. Of course, there is usually an explosion of blood, cartilage and bone. The usual you could say.

The gears or metal parts or whatever came out were not expected.

He was still...alive for lack of a better word. Some light shining and some kind of spirit clinging to the...specialized automation I guess. And he looked pissed. Mostly dying but still pissed. Time to get out. Up is the fastest route. If I can time the explosions right...

Wait...why did I assume there would be explosions?

The walls were...funny now. Shimmering. As if whatever force held them was breaking apart. As if nature suddenly erased whichever loopholes held them together out of her laws.

Hah...walls exploding inwards and turning into solid ground and rocks...as if there never was a tunnel. I'm going to be buried alive without the need for shovels.

I always knew they were overrated.

"Fuck fuck fuck!"

That was me, running down a tunnel, trying to figure out what the fuck to do in case of tunnel turning into ground. There never were signs for that kinds of thing.

The concerned reader would note that I really should focus on the whole "thinking ahead" thing from now on. But that would first force me to get into the whole "thinking" thing, and since I'm in an reverting, let's call it reverting , tunnel, I'm pretty sure there is no time.

Walls fell, traps activated, side alley disappeared right before I could get into them. Despair seemed like a good choice. Too bad all I have available to me was rage.

At least I had a lot of it.

Bracing myself, I took Backbiter and started stabbing the roof. Hey, I couldn't be that far down right?

The huge stream of rocks, dirt and what I hope is not animated skeletons which poured out suggested otherwise.

Shit...but if it's not part of the Labyrinth...then that hole should stay there and...nope, totally trapped. Gonna die. I was in that delightful stage of angry despair when the eye of Kronos saw it. A thin sliver of light.

Phew. This story almost came to a very anticlimactic ending.

xxx

"So...an ancient structure of untold size comes tumbling down after only your second visit...that's classic you." said Luke, helping me dig my leg out, which was embarrassingly enough still stuck in the sand. It appears I had found one of the few exits which were basically just a hole in the sand. Unlike the others, this one would probably never have been found.

"How did you find me?" I asked, as Tyson got down on his hand and knees and got my leg out in seconds.

"Well, the walls started shaking." said Rachael. "As if they wanted to break."

"And as that was what we came here to do...I assumed that meant you did it. And we got the fuck out. Hopefully some of Oranos's guys didn't." completed Luke, helping me up and patting Tyson on the back.

Me and Luke shared a grin.

"Guess we're done here." I noted.

"Yeah." said Luke, looking pointedly at Rachael.

"Oh well...Rachael, thanks for your...services. We will now return you to your home and never contact you in any way or shape or form again, in the vague hopes that you'll be confused and eventually get convinced that this never happened." I said, not looking at her.

"Hey! You can't just cut her out of this world! I am part of it too! Why else-"

she began angrily.

"Look Rachael. We might appear in your life again some time, but for now...we're at war. If you want to do something helpful, join a geographical society so you can help redraw the maps afterwards." said Luke sadly.

"This isn't fun. This is a world that made us, and we're a bunch of teenage murdering arsonists. Don't become like us. Seriously, you probably won't avoid prison as well as we do." I added whimsically.

"But I want to be part of this. If I can help -" began Rachael but I cut her off.

"Look...we can maybe create some obscure wiki for you or something. But the thing about war is...the thing about fights is...movies and books and series give you this idea, this very wrong idea, that the plucky kids who defy the people like us can actually survive. And probably even help. Because they love morality and good sounding stories so much that it twists their ability to create fantasies, and they create stories where they run into death's mouths and you deus ex machina the fuck out of them till they live and save the day. But you know what? When a sword is swinging towards a neck, there is no difference to whether you're good or bad or quirky or enduring or awesome or whether it makes a good or a bad story. The sword cuts."

"Think for a moment..." said Luke softly. "What would you do against one of those monsters you saw us fight?"

"Hipster them too death?" I suggested softly, causing Rachael to twirl around and glare at me.

She was going to protest. Either about the hipster comment of the whole cutting her out of our world thing. Key word is was.

Luke dropped her with a single punch.

"Oh well...special Delivery for , then back to camp half blood." said Luke, slinging her over his shoulder.

"What happened to chivalry?" I asked sarcastically.

"I choose keeping people alive above it, every time." answered Luke.

xxx

For the usual heroes, there are big groups of happy smiling people to come and meet you when you successfully complete a quest. Maybe a feast, maybe some gifts...maybe the gods pretending for a few seconds that they care.

For us, Mr.D was there with the glares, Chiron looked stern and some guys from the Hermes cabin clapped sarcastically.

"Well, I was always sure that if I wanted something beautiful and completely unique destroyed, you two are the ones for it." said Mr.D. "I hate you both, so very very much." He actually looked emotional. "So very very much."

Chiron looked at him in a worried fashion before he turned to me.

"Well Percy, it appears that despite your lacerations, stabbings, poisonings, proximity to exploding dragons, broken bones, damaged hearing, frequent bouts of nausea and vomiting as well as one most probably inaccurate case of having been decapitated, you haven't received any medical attention since arriving at camp half blood. You appear to have skipped every single visit." he said , looking sternly down at me.

I shrugged. "They were flesh wounds."

"Nevertheless," sighed Chiron. "It appears there is at least one girl who can be trusted enough to probably not murder you with her medical equipment. Go see her now Percy. I will brook no argument on this. And Luke...I shall need you to assume some of my duties. I'm going to fetch my brethren." He and Luke then continued on about stuff which required responsibility or something, while I had a doctor's appointment.

Ah well. Worst comes to worst, I can kill her and run.

xxx

I'm in a wooden room, filled with sharp things which were probably only sterilized by prayers. Or maybe unicorn blood. Who knows with those crazy Apollo campers.

"You know, you're a lot smaller than I thought you'd be." said the blonde girl who was examining me. She was a bit older than me and sort of pretty. I guess. I haven't read enough magazines to get an opinion on looks.

I looked at her. Remember kids, staring angrily is for when you aren't witty enough to think up a response so...

"Well, maybe we should compare kill counts. I would say I've killed about 200 times as many monsters as you but my calculations are ruined by the fact that you probably have killed zero." I replied.

"And you can't have a conversation." she continued, shining a light into my eyes. I had to pretend it was uncomfortable for the...special one.

"Oooooohhh...a doctor and a psychiatrist...and only fifteen. Jeez, we must be protecting you from monsters and Harvard scholarship offers." I shot back. Hint. HINT!

"And you don't even remember me." she sighed, talking out some...probably overly large hammer to test my reflexes. Hello, 19th century.

"Did I maybe kill you at some point? Oh wait..."

"No." she said, unabashed. "You saved me from an entire detachment of Oranos's troops." She looked a bit annoyed when I didn't respond with an "Oh yeah! No problem my lady" or "It's what I do" or some other comment which would ruin my rep.

"You're going to have to be a lot more specific than that. I'll need a location, the day, also the hour, considering how some of my days go, possibly also a description of the monsters and most importantly you should somehow, and this part I'm really confused about, get me to give a fuck." I commented drily.

"We were completely outnumbered. There were at least forty of them. I yelled to the others to go. They were wounded but nowhere near as badly as me and there were only four of us. You barely did anything in the previous fights..." she said, ignoring me like her inner voices.

Oh dear. And this is where my lust for homicidal awesomeness comes off as heroic.

"When they ran some followed. But a lot of them decided to take me down first... I fought for a few seconds but they just laughed and threw me down. A single lizard person was giggling at me, leaning over me and licking my throat..."

"When I decided I wanted to swing my sword. There was conflict of interest, what with his neck being in the area I wanted to swing, but..." I began. "Yeah, I remember. What? You were expecting me to charge in bravely? I did what was most effective. Came in from the side while they weren't looking and made sure they didn't get the chance to look."

"I could have died." she said quietly. "If you were even a second late." Ooooo...now one of the sharp things is held ominously near me.

"You didn't." I said with finality. "Hench this boring conversation."

"Why do you use words like that?" she asked. "They don't...fit."

"Less talking, more telling me I'm fine and sending me back where I can actually do something, which for lack of a more stringent definition, can be called good." I said with my eyes closed.

She rolled her eyes. I didn't actually see it but I could feel it happening. "Take off your shirt."

Ah. So this is why she agreed to see to my tender body.

For my tender body.

"For the love of Zeus..." she breathed, when I had silkenly removed my shirt.

"Yeah. I work out." I replied, knowing that was not the cause of the blasphemy.

"How does it stick together?" she breathed, looking at my beautiful scar collection. There were the more retro ones, all deep and solo, standing out, each one telling a story. Of course, the story was mostly "Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck that hurt" but they did it in different voices. Then there were the post modern ones, more shallow, already faded, in elegant patterns. All in all, it would be harder for her to examine the parts of me that aren't scars. "Seriously, you should be ripping open..."

"It's this fascinating new thing called super glue. I hear it also has none medicinal purposes." I said mockingly. "Half god remember?" And one hand one eye titan, but I'm not really sure how those percentages work out.

"You're dying." she noted with horror. "You're dying and that's why you don't care about anything, you know you should be dead...are you under a curse?"

"Well, I think Hermes cast a spell on me which causes my soap to magically change to razors whenever I try to wash." I retorted lightly.

She stared at me. Sigh. Other people always run out of fun things to say first.

"You know how I heal in water? Well, since me and my father had a little...argument it's still been happening. Except it's purely functional. I think it'll fail when the war is over. One of those swords over the neck kind of things."

Complete bullshit of course. Luckily there aren't any other kids of Poseidon to compare it with. And that the gods would actually pull that kind of bullshit. That's sorta lucky too, in a not lucky at all sort of way.

"Oh...well..." she said, beginning to examine me further. "Well, you are right about the functional part. You seem...fine. There are no ruptures...no...blah blah blah."

Vague medical terms, which could be summarized as "you're fine".

"Lastly, your hands." she said, waiting for them.

Well, this can go one of two ways...see, patch work and replacing entire parts comes across just a tad differently.

"Right hand is...well, as you would expect from all your exercise and sword fighting and repeated damage. You'll still be able to use it but you'll probably lose all function when you're around forty." she said.

"Haha...you think I'm going to go into double double digits."

"And your left hand...is perfect. No damage, strong..." she stared. "You fight with two swords right?"

"Yep. It's all about style." I responded.

"That doesn't really work unless you have supervision." she began. "Or if you are not at all afraid of getting stabbed and slashed. Well, as your doctor, I'm recommending that you change your fighting style. You're going to be nothing but a collection of stab wounds otherwise. As a person who knows you, I'm recommending that you keep going as you're doing and not to be afraid of taking risks. Maybe even take more of them."

I stood up and started leaving the room. Maybe a parting comment? Nah. Just ooze disdain Percy, just ooze it.

xxx

It was quite a while past twilight. Me and Luke were sitting in the dining area, where a little girl was still keeping the fire going. We were drinking cokes, sweat was dripping off of us softly.

Patter patter patter. Like smelly rain.

"So...how do you think Oranos is going to try to kill us all?" I asked, slinking back onto a bench and closing my eyes.

"Well...I don't really know, but if I had to guess...he has the larger force. Even if all the gods's allies and servants are called in, they will be overwhelmed. There is only one force that can stop him, and that's us. There are two things he needs to do...one, distract the gods. Get them out of Olympus. Two, get us out of the way so that he can just stroll in and destroy their seat of power. Without Olympus, the symbol of the gods, they will fall. All their servants will give up on them, all the things on the line between allegiances will choose Oranos."

He grinned.

"So, he can either go directly towards Olympus but then he'll have us attacking him from behind." said Luke softly. "Two fronts...he won't risk it. So either he is going to kill us all first and then march on Olympus, or draw the Olympians out and force us to move when we can't..." Huh. It appears he's still arguing with himself while talking to me. With hard work...I might just out sane him one of these days...

"So we sit here and...?" I asked.

"Rescue everyone and everything we can. Get it all here. The problem is though...if we appear too well defended, he will force the Olympians out, and catch us as we run. If we are too badly defended, he will simply swoop in and crush us." replied Luke. "So yeah. We just sit here." He stared into the night for a while. "Here or Olympus...we need to be either here or at Olympus..here, or Olympus."

"You know. I'd have hated to be you." He looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "I mean the leader. The guy who makes all the decisions. All I have to do is to swing a sword."

Luke cracked open another Cola.

"Thalia and Annabeth should be back in a week. Apparently there was this complicated mess with a titan and the sky. And Zoe is dead."

"Always a silver lining." I said.

"Bianca is also dead." he said softly.

"Ah." I said, thinking about the awkward situation with Nico which was sure to follow. "Ah."

xxx

"You know , most dads give their kids stuff like attention and acknowledgement that they exist...but sitting near a lake every now and then...that's cool too." I commented boredly, noticing there was a sea god on my shore.

"And most sons have the decency not to mock everything they meet, kill or otherwise encounter." responded Poseidon, nodding at me again, gesturing that I should join him for some badass fishing or what not. "Also the desecration...always with the desecration."

I ignored the offer and just sat down next to him.

"So...what up?" I asked.

He didn't immediately respond. He just stared at the ripples in the lake and smiled at me. "Well, we're losing Percy." A seconds pause. "That's the nice thing about you...usually I have to wrap things like that up in pretty words, but not too you. Of course, we probably have a maximum of five minutes before we're at each other's throats, but I even prefer that to normal conversation. Especially in times like these."

"Yeah. Being outnumbered and outclassed generally does that do an army. You know, if you and Zeus and Hades hadn't kept those vows and brought forth more children this might have been a lot easier." I commented.

"Indeed." answered my dad. "But then again, they would have much greater cause to go over to the other side. It's really hard to be sure of which side you are on."

I laughed a bit, for the first time in...I don't really know. "So that's why you are here? To figure out whose cock I'm planning to suck after this mess is over?"

"That is the problem...you see, the entire Olympus wants you dead. If you weren't as pivotal as you keep appearing to be, well, you'd have been killed a long time ago." responded my dad. "You know this. I know this. So I'm wondering why you keep acting like you're on our side and yet...you keep antagonizing the gods you supposedly serve? You are aware, that after this war is over, you will be punished, yet you keep working for out side. Not even Prometheus acted quite so...senselessly."

"What can I say? You guys are family. Can you get aunt Hera to knit me another sweater?" I asked. "Oh wait...you didn't give me a sweater. You stuck me in a cell where I was starving and bleeding to death all the time and couldn't die. Basically the same thing though."

Poseidon stared into my eyes again, and this time, it was a god staring at me again. The Hawaiian shirt and short and fishing pole suddenly seemed stupid: what did they have to do with an eternal being of near infinite power? If they wanted me to treat them like immortals beings of untold power, couldn't they at least act like it?

"You know, I'm beginning to become truly worried about your grip on reality." responded Poseidon.

"Hey, I'm in touch with reality. Apparently, it's you guys who don't listen to the voices."

"Well, in all honesty, they wanted you executed today. The war is going so badly that, even your allegiance might be enough to tip it. Especially since you can easily awaken Typhon, something he's been having a hard time doing." continued Poseidon, shaking his lure before he seemed to decided there was no fish at the end of the line. "But the problem is...monsters tell tales. Interesting ones, about you yelling at Oranos that quote, he is a limp bearded fuck, and you shall castrate him. Unquote."

"That's out of context." I shot back irritably.

"Yes, but as Athena has noted, that cost him a lot. To see a titan so humbled and the insulter go unpunished...his minions have lost a lot of faith in the sky lord. "Poseidon smiled again.

"You know I didn't do it for that." I said.

"We are so far beyond words now. I have failed you son. And you have failed me. I hope you will learn to respect me at some point, as I do still respect you, in an odd way." he said softly.

The sheer puzzlement on my face at that last line would fuel a hobby shop for a thousand years.

"I am of the sea. The reckless, untamed sea. I have to respect a man who can take a stand and say "no, I'm part of no group, no allegiance, and I choose death I choose torture before pretending, even for a second to be the lapdog or smiling servant of those I despise."

He smiled at me. It was a fatherly smile.

"In short, you have to respect a man who can take a stand and say "No...we can't all just get along , and I will rather die than pretend otherwise."".

He sat quietly and eventually I picked up a lure.

We fished for a few hours, catching some and throwing them back.

Then he left.

xxx

I was the only one who stayed up this late, mostly because I wanted to be alone most of this time. I ate dinner for breakfast, skipped lunch and then had me some brinner.

Of course the cleaning Harpies had some problems with my schedule, but they miraculously cleared up after several wound up mysteriously impaled on my sword.

Yay democracy.

Of course, someone had been planning something for a few days. I didn't say anything, but merely watched. And waited.

And tonight, for some reason known only to the brain dead, he thought he was ready.

"Evening Nico." I said, one sword tearing through a rather well hidden but above all crucial rope, one knife hitting a pulley and a net fluttering off harmlessly. "A net? Seriously? You are aware of my tendency to slash at things even when it isn't beneficial right?"

He growled in response. "You told me they would protect her!"

Ah. Yep. Called it. Whatever happened to that Bianca girl was all me, despite the fact that I was busting some ghosts and kicking some ass when it happened.

"Yeah...can you maybe move some of that rage towards the hunters? Then I might care and we can maybe form a little club?" I answered, wondering where he was. The shadows were all wrong. Several were too dark, like people dressed all in black were standing in them.

"I heard about you...here at the camp. How you think you're the coolest thing ever...how you're too good to spend time with anyone except Luke, Thalia and Annabeth...how you're a fucking hypocrite who hates the gods because they also don't treat people like people...hate them because they act like you act."

I laughed out loud at that one. "Excellent...the thing is, I do use my body to chill drinks and I refuse to treat people like people when they don't act like it. Be filled with more faults that a returned iPod and I'll give you various highlights and summaries of all of them. And in my defense...the gods started it."

Got him. Two movements my hands were lifting him up, one hand quickly disarming him and shoving him against a wall again.

"The thing you forget is...I may be a bit...unhinged, but my excuse list for insanity just keeps getting longer and longer! So far we have trapped in the underworld, only loving family killed just because I was born, mind rape by a very tenacious ghost and now...now my body feels like it's constantly falling apart. I'm dead Nico...I'm just forcing myself every second to go on...and one day...when my hold slips...it'll be all over...and then the _real_ punishment will begin...and it will never end...and everything I do is just compounding it more and more...I'm slipping Nico...I can't die...but I'm dying…"

Okay. I'm not one hundred percent sure here, but I may have come across as slightly...fucking insane in this scene. But gosh darnit, I was just being true to myself. And Nico needed some shock therapy but I lost my Pikachu and there wasn't a thunderstorm handy.

"She's still dead..." he answered, ignoring my Oscar speech. Or not...the eyes, this guy is smarter than I give him credit for...he's trying to keep me off my guard isn't he? While he digests what I said like some delicious cake.

"Yes...but that's not my fault...these things happen Nico. It's part of the life. You might think the myths are cool and we are awesome and we go to school, summer camp, save the world...but too many of us die Nico. There's a reason why I'm...tolerated. Because I've never let a half blood die if I could stop it. Because when you see me fighting you can believe I will eventually kill all of them. Because they want someone, anyone, who can rip the monsters apart."

Well, in all honesty, my plan was to get him to hate the hunters with me and then maybe we could play a spot of genocide and hope the gods don't notice. Unfortunately, the guy was too bright.

"Your skin..." he whispered. "It turns red and light shines out when you're angry...and when you're calm...it all disappears..." Oh dear...he caught me when my gloves are off...and now he's noticing things. Things other people can't see for some reason. Shit…he's the Hades's child, isn't he?

"Yeah...my skin Nico. Cept it's not really mine, you know. We have a little problem now, concerning your ability to talk. Or type. Any communication at all really."

He tried to scream. Good luck doing that with my fist in your mouth.

Fucking biters.

"What are you?" he got out, scrambling backwards in a crablike manner.

"At the moment? I'm the closing line in your obituary." I replied, jumping over him and bringing my sword down as hard as I could.

Normally, as I've more or less said before, there's an explosion of flesh and I'll have to go say hello to and .

This time however the whole killing thing didn't work out due to there being a skeleton in the way.

He was staring at me in horror, somehow willing more of the damn things to rise up and also stare at me. Oh dear...guns, sword, axes, halberlds...we have ourselves an interesting and varied group at least. Who pounced on me all at once.

Fortunately, Nico wasn't the only one who was special. I jumped backwards and broke two of them, before Nico screamed and they reformed. He was glowing with a blue light...some kind of blessing of Hades probably. However, Hades, you just fucked up. Badly.

See, Nico thinks he's going to win now...and if he thinks he's going to win...well, he won't want other people to interfere will he?

xxx

It was remarkable. He was watching his skeletons fall one after the other, watching me dispatch them with ridiculous ease and yet he kept demanding that they stay quite. He really was going to try and kill me.

And better yet, the things were reforming. All in all, this was turning into a pretty good training session. But, alas, someone might come along and then I'll have to kill two people and dig twice as deep.

And I really hate digging. Stupid shovels.

Oh dear. Nico has another one of his little plans. Whilst the skeletons keep me busy by providing moving targets for my various stabs and parries, Nico had grabbed the net. Suddenly, they all pulled back, two skeletons came from the front with the net, Nico from behind and the other two came two my sides.

Two swords. 360 degrees. Welcome to awesomeness bitch. I managed to get the two skeletons at my side easily enough, and Nico backed off a bit, but then the ones with the net appeared to get it around me.

Appeared. Too bad Nico isn't reading this. He really did need more training in this sort of thing.

He swooped in. My blades swooped out.

As I grinningly dispatched the last of the skeletons I looked down at the broken boy lying on the floor.

"You'll be fine..." I said, looking into the little spark left in those eyes. "Just take slow, deep breaths..." I checked the cut again. "Wait...that requires you to have a neck right? My bad."

Well, now I have a corpse, a fissure and several other things which really need explaining. Too much trouble. And I can't really do what needs to be done here.

Sighing, I started walking out of camp half blood. No gear. No food. Just my two swords and a lust for vengeance. And forty dollars.

Oh well...the road to hell begins here.

Ironic though...it's not even like my intentions were ever good.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hah! Wordplay! Next chapter will be narrated by Luke! Good luck following the POV's now! And the points go to N1F3. Sigh...that guy was awesome. We need more of Archimedes.**

**Next Chapter: Like Light To Blindness**


	14. Like Light To Blindness

**Brothers By Rage**

**Like Light To Blindness**

"And so it appears as though our resident angst queen has gone awol." said Mr.D boredly. "Tragically, it turns out he was also one of the main reasons our enemies kept disintegrating." He looked disinterestedly around the room. "What? It was either a lot of cases of spontaneous combustion or Peter Johnson doing something useful...frankly, I'm still shocked it was the latter."

Hi. My name is Luke.

"Furthermore, this war is currently going the wrong way. You keep dying. You're supposed to make the other side die." Mr.D looked at the assembled demigods. "Do I need to send a memo around to the campers? Maybe a guide to warfare or common sense?"

And for lack of a better word, I'm the leader of a bunch of people who are going to be dead soon.

"So...I would like a few reports. Maybe a plan. You know...some of those type of things." he finished, looking to Annabeth and then turning to Herman, who had taken over as head of the Ares cabin.

The thing about books is, they keep hyping up the enemies, making it seem so impossible that they'll fall...

"We've been rescuing everyone we can and hunting as many monsters as we could." began Herman. "However, we're going to have to stop."

Mr.D looked at him for a while. "Stop? Well, that is a novel tactic."

That whenever they actually do fall, it's anticlimactic. Stupid. Some part of you knows it couldn't have happened. Some part knows Voldemort would have killed Harry, Sauron would have conquered middle earth and Neo...shit, I don't even want to talk about how fucked up that was.

"We're outnumbered every single time we go out." replied Herman, barely concealing his anger. "If anybody goes, they're not coming back."

"Very well." said Mr.D. "Then we play the defensive game. Huntress?"

The newly replaced lieutenant of the hunters looked up. "We will stay with you. Lady Artemis has other pressing engagements. No doubt we will be able to help. And we won't be able to get away from here alive even if we tried."

Ah. More humble. Likeable. Then again, fate didn't shit on her repeatedly, which usually has a positive effect on the personality.

"About that..." began Beckendorf hesitantly. " We are surrounded. Completely. By nasty things. And big things. They're digging in."

Yeah...I've noticed. Our borders hold, but you have to wonder what happens to a wall if a thousand monsters charge at it? Other than the obvious. Of course, some people don't like a monster filled horizon, but they're the whiny ones who also complain about the food.

"We're trying to perfect the defenses of the camp..." added Annabeth. "But things keep going wrong. It's like they're actively causing us to...not be capable of building the defenses. I know it sounds weird, but nails break, tools go missing...they're somehow actively impeding us."

"So, you can go nowhere, and soon you will be attacked by an army which is larger, deadlier and more skilled than yours." concluded Mr.D. "Well Magic man...what's the plan?"

"Magic man?" I asked softly, when I realized he was referring to me. I got to that answer by elimination, not by Mr.D giving it away by you know, actually looking at me when he spoke.

"Well, you made your best friend disappear." he responded.

There was a pause.

"They're in a circle around us. We figure out where the weakest points in their line is, we break through and we run." I answered, not looking up at the faces around the table. They were expecting some exciting, insane plan. Unfortunately, I need to keep them alive. And without Percy here...I don't feel like any insanity.

"That won't work." countered Herman angrily. "They'll overwhelm us."

"Power at a point." I responded, barely getting my voice above a whisper. "They'll be disorientated. We'll probably wipe out a big part of them. Then we move. The hunters and Apollo campers can move while we're still engaging, and then fire at them as the main group moves. Then we rejoin and move towards New York."

Somehow, I'm pretty sure all the others heard was "running away running away running away".

"Luke...this isn't like you." said Thalia sadly.

You know, when Hitler was in that bunker of his, he gave up all chances of escape. He just stayed there and hoped that he could still win. Hoped that he could join forces with the Americans and British and fight the Soviets. Until he killed himself of course. By that point he had given up.

"Yeah. It's not. Running away is unfortunately all option we have left. We move in force, and then we have to barricade the empire state building. That's their real target. That's where we'll make our stand." I said.

Everyone was silent. Scared. The crazy guy who did not fear death or gods or mutilation was shaken. Some part of the body, upon seeing a constant like that changed, suddenly decides it might be a good idea to just give it up and die.

Mr.D finally looked at me in his...way.

My left hand was on my sword and it felt good there. With that sword I was not complicated. I was just a very fast edge. I block, I cut. That's all. God I love it when things are simple. I finally understand Percy a bit more.

With one swift movement I cut right through the table.

"You know...this is awkward. Because we need the kind of speech you give people who are going to make their final stand and die right now. But we're not going to make a final stand now. We're going to run. We're going to be running and screaming in the dark as monsters kill everyone who falls or is just too slow. But you know what?"

I looked around and them and the grinning happened.

"It's going to feel fucking good. We're rats right now...watching as the cats and dogs and fucking exterminators grin around us, waiting as they burn down our walls and sniff our fear. We've all lost friends to these sick fucks because well...we were born and we had the audacity to not die in creative and entertaining ways for them. But you know what?"

God this sword feels good. Amazing really.

"Even if it's just for a few seconds, we're going to be hunting them. Even if it's just for long enough to watch a few of them die first, we will be fighting them. For every hero we lost...and every hero we're going to lose. For a few good ideas and a bunch of people who will never know we died for them."

The shock was stricken from the faces but it was replaced with something different. Like hopeful desperation, if that makes sense.

It doesn't.

"Have everyone ready by midnight. We leave at two." I said, striding out.

xxx

The camp was in shambles. We had to focus on leaving while on the same time making it look like we were still planning to defend the camp.

"Luke, we might run out of arrows. We need more time to make enough. Otherwise we won't be able to keep the Empire state building." said one Huntress, looking at me with just a hint of anger.

I looked back at her. "We'll rob hunting stores and archery stores or whatever the fuck stocks arrows in New York. I will personally manipulate the mist and their ledger entries okay? Just cap em with celestial bronze afterwards."

You know, Percy would be really handy at this point. Thalia's lightning is impressive, but it's more of a one on one weapon. Percy would probably have been able to throw the entire river on the bastards and then give us one hell of an earthquake. Disorientation...we have no one who's really good at that. And stealing the attention of an entire army. He's good at that to.

"Luke, a lot of the people won't be wearing proper armour. It's already weak at some points , mostly the knee guards , but we don't really have any other options..." said Beckendorf. "I'll try and patch them up as best we can, but you might want to keep the people wearing them in the back."

"Give them to the Hermes kids. We're faster and harder to hit. Give the best to the Ares campers. They'll be in the front." I answered.

I thought they would have been more pissed after losing Clarisse. But apparently she went physco bitch towards the end. And about love. Nothing the Ares cabin supports. Join your side...all your causes are their causes, believe collectively, all else is lies...

No wonder Percy hates thinking.

"You expect us to go into hell first? As nice, willing meat shields?" asked Herman, teeth bared. But he won't give the "honour" up. If I didn't force them to do it, the Ares cabin would have been insisting that I let them lead the fight. Their pride as the greatest fighters or something.

"No...I'll be going into hell first as you so repetitively put it. You'll be behind me, with a first class seat to the show called me trying to kill fucking everything. If I die, feel free to pick me and hold me in the direction arrows are coming from." I responded.

He grinned at the last part. I hate being a leader. They say that leadership is best suited to those who don't want it...if that's true, I might be the best leader ever. And I'm not brave. At least I don't think so. I used to be able to believe so intensely in what I was doing, keeping Thalia, Percy and Annabeth safe...that it sort of dulled me to the fear. Even now...I'm not brave for myself.

"You feeling okay?" asked Thalia who was polishing a lovely spear. Custom made. The bottom edge curved so it would catch onto whatever it was stabbed inside and do more damage as it was pulled out. Probably for killing _really _big things.

"I don't know." I said numbly. "If Percy was here, I'd have put him in charge. I'm too nervous. In a mission like this, not caring about anyone is a plus point."

She looked at me with a wry half smile. "People won't follow Percy. They might listen to him, they might even do what he says, but he'll never be able to lead them. " She sat down next to me took my hand. "Everyone here is getting ready for a suicide mission because _you _ think it's the best option. You're the reason they won't panic if they're overwhelmed. You're the thing that's keeping them here when their fear is screaming at them to run."

I just sat there, unable to fully understand why people will follow me. It's a good thing no else can see what you really think. I tried desperately to change the damn subject before I could start thinking again.

"So...I heard the Hunters offered you a place. As their leader apparently. Since you're still rocking the punk look, I'll assume you turned them down." I said softly, more grateful than it's probably fair to be.

"Yeah...turns out I have responsibilities." she said softly, looking away from me.

"That prophecy Chiron keeps harping about? Also known as the pro abstinence excuse to kill your children bill?" I asked. "Hah...not as succinct as I would have hoped."

"If not me...then Percy. And I know you have noticed, but I don't know if you've accepted it, but Percy is not...optimally adjusted. If he is pissed enough, he might just...I don't know. He's definitely not predictable." she said carefully. "I want to make sure that the gods win. I may not like it, but I'm choosing this prophecy. He doesn't deserve to have this thrown on top of him as well."

"So...taking the fate of the world on to your self...for what it's worth, I think it's in good hands." I said, happy that I actually meant it.

"I have a plan...if I pull this off, the gods will grant me one favour. Or blessing, or whatever. Usually it's to become immortal or a minor god, but they can keep both of those. So I started thinking...what if I ask that they let Percy reincarnate without his memories...and then judge that person. Sort of a...test trail of some sort?"

I laughed. "They might not be keen...but they have to grant you something. They always do."

"Yeah..." she said softly, and continued to polish her spear. She looked like she was thinking hard about something. Poor girl.

"Kill a lot of them for me okay?" I said, and walked away.

xxx

It's five minutes to two.

There are only seventy of us left. They have a sea of monsters, at least thirty ex campers and several titans. Of course, not sure if those are allowed to get involved, but still.

The Ares kids were slapping each other on the back and looking hardcore and saying things like "this is it." , "let's go let's go let's go!" , "For Ares!"

This _is _it.

The Hunters and the Apollo campers are in the back, hand on their bows, looking nervous. Being sure if the place they were running to safe is unfortunately a luxury we do not have. And have you tried using a bow against a sword in close quarters?

It's four minutes to two.

The Athena kids were walking up and down. They, along with the Hermes kids would be doing most of the actual fighting. They have to keep the monsters busy while the less capable campers do what they can.

The kids of Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Aphrodite...they just stood there, not feeling right but all ready to die. They don't think they can survive this one. Sure, they can fight, a bit, but it's like saying every horse in the race can run.

It's three minutes to two.

Thalia is standing alone, looking like an overly armed raven. She decided she would be following behind me. With Aegis there...well, at least the monsters will probably scatter. And keep scattering. She's good at that.

"Ready Luke?" she asked, spear set, shield raised.

"Just the dodge the corpses falling behind me." I responded, holding my sword at an angle.

"What? You want me to dodge both of them?" she responded lightly, but somehow, her heart wasn't in it.

It's two minutes to two.

Annabeth was reassuring people, holding out two knives and her baseball cap in hand. She smiled in a weird way at one of the Apollo kids, a sort of, don't die , kind of way.

Huh. Guess I'm yesterdays news.

I blame Apollo for upstaging me. Goddamnit, I can't believe I'm going to die before being able to match him in the hair department...

Huh. I really don't want to think about what's going to happen, do I...

It's one minute to two.

There is this little voice walking through the group. It's whispering a simple little message again and again and again.

_You're all going to die. You're all going to die. You're all going to die._

Fuck I can't do this.

It's two.

I'm running full pelt knowing no one can keep up. But this won't work unless they try.

xxx

The guy who was keeping watch was a half blood. He saw us and panicked. He would have made a signal if he didn't get my sword through his throat.

Two Wolfmen jumped out of the darkness, grinning when they only saw me, making a weird screeching noise when they saw all of camp half blood bearing down on them.

Still just me who killed both of them though.

The vanguard was called in, they were forming ranks, pulling back and huge roaring lizard came charging towards us but Thalia jumped in front of it, Aegis forcing it back. Before it got over the terror Annabeth and two of my Hermes guys were on the lizard and stabbing for all the were worth.

God damn...those vampire bitches are charging now. An entire...murder of vampire bitches? That's the word for crows right? Seems appropriate. One of them managed to slash my arm open. Shallow though. But still, I'm really not on form. Two arrows killed the nearest ones and I jumped and finished another before it could fly away.

Some monsters were coming, but left when they saw how many we were. Others, of the more homicidal variety, came at us anyway. They went down easily. For the first time, we were outnumbering them.

For a second, we all thought this would be easy. Until the horns sounded and the entire army was on top of us like a wave.

xxx

This was the part where you didn't want to care about anybody.

When everybody is dying around you, you want to be able to focus on more or less the most important thing: staying alive.

Something which appeared to have been rejected from the walking dead casting sessions was standing in front of me. Something which appeared to have been rejected from the walking dead casting sessions was soon split in two. He had crows...he even had fucking crows. I swatted four dead, but not everyone else was as fast.

Wtf...was that one of those turtle things from Mario Bros? Who the fuck WASN'T supporting Oranos?

Wait...there just regular fire breathing turtles. I almost panicked. Luckily the Heaphestus kids pretty much countered them. No fear of fire and big, big hammers.

I ran forwards and grabbed a random ex campers arm and stabbed her through the armpit. Ons of the Demeter kids, I think she was called Katie or something, was trying to fight with a panther warrior and a giant of some sorts at the same time.

I stabbed the giant thing in it's side and grabbed the arm it sent down the kill me and started climbing. When I was on it's back, I brought my sword through it's neck in a pretty explosion. Before it could collapse I jumped and landed on something else which was also quickly killed. Goddamn...I've been in huge fights before, but in this one you can pretty much just swing a blade and get five kills. Quick duck and a jump forward to avoid...I'm not even sure. Even half blood awareness can only do so much.

I started running forward and decapitated two giant worms which sprang out of the earth before I even realised what I was doing.

Fuck...one of Dionysus's kids was dead. Or he had found out how to live without his body. Either way, I charged and killed the two scorpions which appeared to have killed him.

I have no idea how I kept going, but at some point, I realized I was trying to kill off his entire army. With a ripped open shoulder and some sort of spike in my leg. Two of the Hermes campers, I think they were the Stoll Brothers were a long while off, staring at me.

"Run! Tell Thalia to lead you!" I yelled. I knew this had to happen. It was like Oranos's army was a giant grinning face, laughing at us. I could see the campers now...they were together, at least fifty of them. But they weren't going to bother to run. Oranos's army was standing there, ready to chase.

I was going to die here. Thalia would lead them. I had to believe that. The campers were staring at me. Or the giant army right behind me. Laughing.

I ran over to the campers and noticed that the monsters weren't moving at all. Just looking at us.

"Well well, we are in trouble." said Lord Oranos, walking through his rapidly parting troops. "It seems, whoever is leading you, is acting exactly as we knew they would."

I heard various whispers behind me, like "There must be a traitor" and various variations which suggested that it was Percy.

"Do not feel threatened...for I don't wish to hurt any of you..." began Oranos softly.

And the mindfuck starts in 1...2...3...

"I am not the gods. I can comprehend suffering, for I have spent an eternity with it. I can understand you. If I win this war through you, I will not only be merciful to mankind, I will benefit them in ways you cannot imagine. Mankind has received nothing from the gods. We titans will be everything people imagined benevolent gods to be." continued Oranos softly, smiling at us. You could almost pretend there wasn't a huge army behind him which had already killed about twenty of us.

He looked...like god. Sort of like Odin, but more like a messiah of some sort. Long white hair, stately robes. Hands that looked delicate. No weapon. You could actually see the lack of a weapon. And that voice. Damnit that voice. He was talking utter shit that no one should believe. Ever.

The saddest thing was, even those who didn't , wanted to believe him.

"Your parents see you as weapons. They see you as disposable. I can't be your parents. I can't really understand you. But I can be better. I can try. If you give me a chance with this world..."

"Yeah right." yelled someone luckily. " You killed my parents when I wouldn't serve you!"

"This is war child. I wanted the shortest possible solution. I wanted to save greater suffering. But I can be merciful. I can forgive. They who stand with me shall be rewarded. Ask yourselves, who are better cared for, who are safer, the half bloods under the gods or the half bloods under me?"

"You're lair! The titans of lies!" yelled someone.

"That's Kronos." whispered Annabeth. 10 out of 10 for factuality, -10 out of 10 for context.

"Indeed...my son. The liar, the betrayer...the one who knowingly ate and destroyed his children. I, just like the gods, am one of his victims. I never killed my father. Power is mine by right, by birth. It's the gods who do deny me the right to exist...just like they deny so many of you for their own selfish reasons. Am I wrong for committing heinous acts merely to survive? Yes. But what have I done to deserve my curse? Am I not allowed some...leeway in righting this world?" Damn that voice was silk. And you couldn't remember all the bad stuff he's supposedly done. Not that it matters...history is written by the victors and all the myths will be based on what Kronos said...or so he can claim.

"The spell...you need to break the spell of his voice before people forget what he is." whispered Thalia softly. Well, captain obvious, you've just be promoted to lieutenant for that one.

The difference between me and Percy is, he would have said that out loud.

And the reason I was thinking of Percy is because he was standing next to Oranos, along with two other half bloods.

"Here stands Nathan Westwood...a child of Morpheus, the minor god of magic. He waited for years in the Hermes cabin, always wondering which god would claim him. Eventually, he gave up...in a cold world, asked to die for those who would not even acknowledge that he exists...he found hope. He found me. I made Morpheus pay. As I shall make all those who deserve it pay." Nathan looked up at Oranos with a sort of adoration. The guy was playing us like a cheap violin. He knew which notes and chords we wanted to hear. Fuck, fuck fuck...I don't know what to say...

"Here is Leia...a sweet daughter of Aphrodite. She didn't want to serve me. I thought the gods planned to use her against me. When she asked to be left out of the war, I granted her that freedom which the gods would take. As you can see she carries no weapon. She is unarmoured. I will keep her safe until this war is over."

There was something in this Leia's eyes...it was not just content, it was tone, it was some sort of godliness...I couldn't move my lips. My larynx was stunned. Nothing I could say could compete with the one, _true _lord of the skies...and I shouldn't even try.

"And then we have the most victimised child of the gods yet. Percy Jackson. When he was just twelve, he learned the gods were real. He learned this when a monster told him it had just brutally murdered his mother and step father under the orders of the gods. He then met a family, people whom you know. The only people he ever managed to form any bonds with, since the gods then imprisoned him for two years, where he was mercilessly tortured again and again as his body healed...his mind was lost before any of you ever met him. The person you met is a personification of the gods and everything that was wrong with them...cold, aloof, completely unable to treat you like people, yet strong and fascinating...this person I had to forgive, because he is as much a victim of the gods as I am."

There was some muttering at this. And the fucker actually got it too the point where it was sympathetic muttering. To be fair, people didn't really know what Percy went through. He was about as vocal as an instrumental album about his time before camp half blood. And they so, so wanted to believe him.

"I had to forgive him." repeated Oranos softly. And suddenly, every person _knew _they could safely join this fucker, he would hold nothing against you. It's safer, it's better it the only way, the best way.

Time to break this fucking spell.

"Oranos...I won't stop anyone who wants to join you." They all stared at me. Some of them unconsciously moved forward. "But all in all, I would like to ask you just one thing. The chance to kill my best friend."

Oranos looked over at him. Remove the enemies head at his own request? Score right? Something passed between them.

"My Lord...I would consider it an honour to remove my friend from this war. Just promise me you will grant him a good afterlife, since he deserves better than what the gods gave him." said Percy, bowing to Oranos on one knee. The tone and pauses were right. The grin wasn't, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who saw it.

"Indeed...we shall honour those who deserve it, regardless of which side they are on. We are not gods." replied Oranos. Everyone, even the monsters unconsciously stepped back.

"For real this time..." I said softly. "I'm a bit wounded, but then again, you're a bit less talented so it evens out."

"I'm going to miss you." responded "Percy" softly. He had both his swords drawn and we were having a nice ol face off. A circle of monsters and campers formed around us.

We grinned at each other. Both our swords swung at insane speeds towards each other.

We could read each other like kindles.

At the exact same instant both our swings veered, mine into the monsters on the left of him, his to the monsters on the right of him.

Force a second it appeared that Percy was out of focus. A massive tremor followed and both of us jumped towards our nearest enemies and started doing what we do best.

"Retreat! Ares and Athena to me! Slow movements! They can't engage us all at once!" yelled Thalia, taking the initiative. She formed a phalanx wall, archers firing lightning fast from behind it. Very Cornith. Of course, it was probably the first time that the wall was used while advancing backwards.

Percy was above me, laughing as he struck down another monster while his sword was stuck in some random half blood. Hopefully an ex camper.

"You know, without you, the gods pretty much lose." He left his one sword and kept on fighting, monster after monster falling. These were not the heavy guys. They were sent after my friends, battering themselves against the wall. These were the vultures and jackals, sent to finish little wounded old me.

"Get up and help!" yelled Percy, as he was almost killed.

The almost was due to me having gotten up and stabbed the boar behind him.

"We can win this!" I screamed joyfully, finally, everything _perfect _again. Corpses were surrounding us, huge hulking things were outnumbering us and cowering in fear and being routed. Oranos was trying to direct his troops, but his rage was breaking his command. Monsters, which at best could should only be pointed at the direction of what you wanted fucked up were...welll...destroying everything around them.

And between all of it, drawing monster after monster, darted Percy, finishing everything which tried to get him.

This is why all the insanity, all the cruelty he has in him is forgiven.

For these precious seconds, when it's just him and me and a bunch of things which no god should ever have allowed to exist.

And of course we're correcting those god's mistakes.

So perfect.

Perfect.

"You...I will kill you for this Jackson. Regardless or anything else you will do, I will kill you." said Oranos, glaring at Percy. "I can't even pretend to understand what you think you're doing..."

"Good luck with that. Unless you want to challenge me to mortal combat, both me and the ancient laws agree you can go fuck yourself. Wait...you need a dick for that right?" Percy shot back, before head butting another monster into oblivion.

The wall of campers was holding. Barely but still...

"Ah." I said softly, noting that the cavalry had arrived. Except they were centaurs, but it was basically the same thing.

"For Olympus!" yelled Chiron, valiantly leading the charge.

"And hey...Cyclopses..." said Percy. as a group of one eyed giants started to flank Oranos's armies.

The monsters closest to us started to realise the whole outnumbering thing they've got going on has only seconds left.

Another titan walked up to Oranos. I think it was Hyperion, but meh. As Percy would say, we're going to kill them and then forget about them. Learning names is not necessary for either of those steps.

"My Lord, this may turn into a rout..." he said softly. "I would suggest that we retreat..."

I couldn't help but start laughing. We were really _winning._ This was ridiculous.

"So Percy...Percy?" I said, noticing he was looking at the horizon. A different one than where the battle was taking place.

"Yeah...Luke, before you start celebrating, you might want to ask yourself why Oranos trusted me." he said tonelessly.

"Temporary insanity? Permanent insanity?" I asked, but I was getting scared now.

"No...because I helped him with _that." _He pointed to the skyline.

Typhon.

**Authors Notes:**

**Yeah. This was fun to write. I didn't feel like doing this from the third person view, so Luke stepped up.**

**And apparently a lot of people like Nico( like Glee, Jane Austen Novels and Lady Gaga I simply do not see the appeal) so I have to say...he had to die. There was no way Nico wouldn't confront Percy about Biance dying, and there is no other way that Percy would have handled it.**

**Next Chapter: Odds plus 1**


	15. Odds plus One

**Brothers By Rage**

**Odds Plus 1**

If this fuck up of a war is a tragedy, I don't know whether I'm the hero or the villain. The only thing I'm sure of is that I'm not one of the fucking tritagonists. And when the story has a lot of gods and titans and other immortals in it, that is pretty impressive.

This _however_ was a sort of okay restaurant. I had to use the mist to properly fit in. You have to wonder, since, as I understand it, the mist causes every person to suffer their own delusion, are they all seeing different things and somehow not noticing it when they speak or describe it to each other? Does the mist do that much? It goes into the brain and forces a new reality instead of what the eyes truly saw? Each time a new movie or is it some sentient thing which chooses one movie for all to see? Like an ancient titan who not even the gods recognise for what it is?

"You're a strange man ." began Oranos softly, smiling at me from across the table. He was eating ambrosia or nectar or something but it appeared to be steak or lobster, depending on how I looked at it. As a half blood, I guess the so called reels had to be changed more frequently.

"Me? I'm just your typical self loathing narcissist. But you...you're a strange titan. I'd have thought you'd have just killed me outright when I sent that lil request of mine...but hearing me out, buying me dinner, making everyone who can see us think you're some sort of paedophile... Nice. Nice." I responded softly , sipping my tasty beverage, glancing at the blood dripping off my shoulder. Whilst he didn't kill me outright, some of the more...emotional things in his army tried to anyway.

Drip drip drip. Huh...at one point the waiter smiled at me with an odd little tic and said he would fetch me something to clean up my spilled soda.

"Well, I want to win this war . And shockingly, you might be the best person to let me do so." he continued, just the smallest part of his eyes still showing how much rage and hatred he felt for me. It was also the part which kept smiling at my body's latest damage report, courtesy of some of the lesser titans. Pussies. I could still feel at least 40 percent of my body.

"And your troops? Gonna forget me making the blasphemy top ten list?" I asked ,somehow keeping the smirk off my face. Pose. Pose. This must be what normal people are like all the time. That, or they've never _really _felt rage. It's not really rage unless you go passed the point where you lose all control, into the point of pure rage where it leads you. Where the rage lets you take punches, insults,lets you watch people you care for die...because the rage knows the only way to really avenge itself, and it will do anything, let anything happen, as long as it finally lashes out at it's cause.

"Oh they'll make up reasons. You needed to convince the gods you were loyal. You were loyal to me all this time. I believe in our cause so strongly that I'll even sacrifice a titan's pride for it." He smirked at me, like we were both in on the little joke of how stupid everyone else is. "But Percy...I might have overreacted. The only thing I care about...really care about...is not going back to Tartarus." Woah...the fake sincerity meter almost exploded over there. "Imagine being immortal, unable to die. It sounds nice...as long as you're not dying." he said simply.

"Yeah...being several piles of sentient, feeling, ripped apart organs would probably not be very relaxing." I responded.

"But... now we come to the tragic matter of your loyalty..." he said, completely ignoring my latest comment. But then again, it's ignore me or hit me with a comeback, and gods have never needed to be good at making those up.

"Or lack thereof." I added lightly.

"Indeed...how do I know you won't betray me?" he asked , giving me his best ,I'm so wise and already know everything you're going to say, stare.

"You see Oranos...I'm not the kind of guy who plans. Or follows the plans even if they are made. In short, I'm a loose cannon which fires in several directions at once. So I can't really guarantee anything, nor do I think you should trust anything I do tell you."

"I'm waiting for the part which explains why I should let you leave here alive. Although you can't exactly go back to the side of the gods, you are unpredictable . I do not see how I can make any sort of plan which involves you and count on you doing anything in it." Again with the stare. Fuck it, we have so many words like wise, brilliant, deep and I'm yet to find someone they actually apply to.

"Yeah...I wouldn't trust me or leave me alive either. So...what I propose is...I do something, which you can use in your plan right? Something which really fucks the gods and can't possibly be used against you. Something which you know exactly what it's going to do. My loyalty become irrelevant, you will win this war, there is no more point in even attempting to betray you . Hench, I'm as close to trustworthy as I'm ever going to get."

He smiled slightly at me.

"And what is that ? What can a little boy pretending to be a hero pretending to be a god slayer give me?"

"I can awaken Typhon..."

He looked at me slowly and I knew I had him. "Well...in an attempt to be completely honest, I have to say, I will kill you the second this war is over. Violently. Probably just decapitation. Maybe a few stabs to start off with. But I can promise you it will only be for a few minutes. Fair?"

I smiled at him. "It's not death I'm worried about...it's what comes afterwards. Specifically, the eternal torture afterwards. I'm thinking...either the fields or reincarnation. So...fair?"

He grinned. And somehow, I actually thought there might be the ghost of sympathy there.

We had an accord.

xxx

Well, seeing as I was useful but also the second largest cause of monster disintegration, Oranos was keeping me in one of his bases until the big show. It was disturbingly close to camp half blood, literally like ten minutes walk away. Our scouting must be _shit. _Or there was a lot of magic and titanly ocular interference involved. But I know the Apollo and Hermes campers and most of them suck.

There were a few ex campers here, and thus it was a bit harder than you would expect for me to make friends in my new camp. Actually, scratch that. It was _exactly_ as hard as you would expect for me to make friends in my new camp.

However, there were a few people there who had never seen camp half blood or their _other_ parent for that matter, and they were quite chatty. They also had to be on another, much shorter list, the one of people I hadn't offended yet. So far, the only person who appeared on both was Duncan, since I managed to add new names to the second list within five seconds of conversation.

"So...the titans are better for the world...why?" I asked, for the fourth time, still not seeing how he simply did not get it.

"Theyyy're, less...Godlike. They're helpfulll...they will actually improve the world." said Duncan, with a glassed over look in his eyes. Everyone got it when I asked them certain questions or when Oranos spoke. Whatever it was, I was pretty much immune, though Oranos didn't seem to be notice. Or care. I wasn't exactly part of the new golden age he wanted to usher in.

"But I thought the titans hanged out with you? Were chilled and helped?" I asked Duncan, who if I had to guess, was a son of Ares. The stutter might have something to do with why he wasn't claimed. That and the weak left arm.

"Yeah...b-b-but since we started winning, that's been happening." He pointed in the direction of a mountain. or something. "They'rrre already rebuilding their thrones upon it. And upgrading the palace to what it was."

"So they're completely convinced they'll win..." I said softly. Oranos's paranoia and humility, everything that gave him an edge over the gods, everything which made him better than gods, was disappearing. The titan was devolving back into a god. Or evolving? Fucking philosophy.

"Well, yeah. I m-m-mean, at first they did hung out with us, helped a bit...but it is important that we have a proud symbol in defiance of the g-g-g-gods." said Duncan, and the poor fucker believed it. He probably didn't even notice he was repeating himself again and again in our conversations. Glassy eyed and firm voiced. Just the words.

Oranos's words. Yay. This is like animal farm, where the pigs discover it's nicer to be humans, except it's titans, and they're remembering what it's like to be gods.

Not a bad analogy. It does beg the question of when I had time to read animal farm though...

Ha, as if I ever read anything other than summaries on Wikipedia.

xxx

"Ready Jackson?" asked Oranos unsmilingly. Hey, if you could smile after putting your trust in a maniac, you probably weren't doing do well on the sanity scorecard yourself. Most people have the decency to hide their scores anyway.

"Indeed...the time is now." I said softly, for reasons I didn't get.

He looked at me oddly as I walked towards a higher point on the mountain, where the hordes of monsters and halfbloods and titans could see me. I turned to face them and they were quiet. Unmoving. A sort of sick, hate filled anticipation was leaking everywhere. It was so heavy you could practically feel it stain the mountainside.

I took Backbiter out of it's sheath. You know, Oranos should really have asked where I got the sword, but gods weren't there for the details.

A titan would have asked.

Death to the gods!

Death to the gods!

The chant was everywhere, slowly filling the valley. Oranos was going to get a hell of a show out of this. I stood grinning at the side of the mountain, his army going insane, somehow they realised this was really happening. What was really happening. I could almost feel Typhon straining against whatever held him down, as he felt what I was about to do. I brought my hand up, and just as I released my will, my rage...I made a fist, which stood defiantly for a second before both hands grasped Backbiter which I thrust into the earth with everything I had.

Death to the gods!

Death to the gods!

The earth around me exploded in fury, rocks shooting all around me, cracks spreading out from under my feet. A sort of scream of betrayer came from the earth itself. See, it was all about balance. Poseidon had his hands full, combating the titans who were trying to rip the earth open. They were pretty close to equal... when I added my little bit, it tipped the scales.

Death to the gods!

Death to the gods!

Come to think of it, the chant is stupid. You can't kill a god. Oranos is the always living proof of that little statement. But I guess when you're in a war against them, half your propaganda is directed towards convincing your troops otherwise. The other half is directed towards making people somehow unable to spot all the glaring similarities between your side and theirs.

DEATH TO THE GODS!

DEATH TO THE GODS!

A thing best described as the personification of destruction rose up, tearing at the mountain, the ground, trees. Everything was being swallowed up like it was a giant tornado, and then lightning was shooting from the thunderstorm, then...

Well, let's just say that your average weatherman would soon be running out of words. It was around me for about a second, and somehow, I could feel it grinning.

DEATH TO THE GODS!

DEATH TO THE GODS!

Oranos stood triumphantly behind me, his material advantage complete. "The age of gods ends here...the final age begins now!" The monsters were cheering but it was skitterish and rushed. Everything was focused on the awesome power. There was an overwhelming sense of there being no fighting this thing. It was the end.

Death to the gods I guess.

xxx

"So...we aren't rushing in and crushing them...why?" I asked softly, looking over at Clarisse, who was our pretty much self appointed leader. I would have taken the title, but then I would have had to talk to people. "I'd have thought with the huge army and single skilled warrior we have we could have just gone in."

"Because...their barriers are still holding. In a few more days though, they'll fall. So until then, we wait. Got it?" she replied, with a brave attempt at imposing her superiority over me. "Sides, Oranos thinks they'll make a break for it tonight. "

"Ah...slaughter them while they run. Should we work out a points system for who we get? Top points for Hermes or Ares, cause they're fast and tough. And then the Athena campers-"

Woah...tough crowd.

xxx

You know, I've been described as a reckless rusher, whose ferocity tears through everything. At least that's what I think they meant by uncaring asshole.

But this battle was centred around carefully constructed tactics. We were placed so that regardless of where Luke chose to break the line, we could gather in a wall around him in no time.

However...

"Stick with me Jackson. I do not want to kill the gods abused little welps." said Oranos softly.

"Yeah, they're much better as swords aren't they. Or maybe for decorating your-

"You will refrain from saying anything which doesn't paint a vivid picture of you as a victimised hero who hurts others to disguise his own pain." interrupted Oranos. "I want you to be a loveable, toothless bad boy, if you need to keep the rebel streak alive."

I looked at the two other...story pieces Oranos chose to accompany him. Damnit...I probably won't even be able to kill anything for at least twenty minutes.

"So...the plan?" I asked uncaringly. I already know that the show will be stolen a few minutes after this battle.

"I want to speak to the half bloods. If I can convince some of them to join us, or even just doubt their cause our march into Olympus will be that much easier. That's the difference between you and me Jackson." He glared down at me, possibly wondering if I was stunned by him implying there's only one difference.

"You would want to march onto Olympus over a mountain of corpses, wading through sees of blood. There is no explaining you, you are not deep. For all the things you say for which you think are so clever, for all the supposed truths you spit out like only you know them, for all the people you have killed and harmed and your apathy towards it...you're just a fool who spent too long alone and needed to convince himself afterwards that he is something different, something amazing." He looked at me, and for the last time, he looked like the thing people imagined when they prayed. "Because you know what you really are Jackson. All because you know what you really are."

I would have hit him with an awesome reply, but that would have made him think I was proving his point. It's no fun winning a battle of wits unless the other side knows it.

xxx

So, there was some yelling some fighting some dying and then silence. Camp Half Blood accepted that they were more or less surrounded. And the gap...well, good luck running through that with some of the things we have chasing you.

Oranos swooped in, tongue ready to do what it does best. He spat out the usual bullshit, so one sided and filled with half truths that the fucking media would be proud and ask him to write an article on something they really want the public to misunderstand or hate or both.

A summary of the verbal exchange as I remember it...

Oranos :Blah Blah Blah Blah JUSTICE!

Luke: Blah Blah Blah Blah TRUTH!

Oranos: Blah Blah Blah Blah CONCEPTS OF MORALITY!

Luke: Blah Blah Blah KILL MY BEST FRIEND!

Hello...things are about to get interesting again.

Me and Oranos shared a look. I think he was trying to tell me something. Fuck that, I have a way better idea.

"My Lord...I would consider it an honour to remove my friend from this war. Just promise me you will grant him a good afterlife, since he deserves better than what the gods gave him." I said, fighting desperately to keep my voice from indicating that I was going betray him as soon as possible. The grin almost gave it away, but I'm pretty sure only Luke saw it.

There was some more propaganda pamphlet dialogue and I threw in an "I'm going to miss you..." to make it appear that I at least pretended to give a fuck.

And then the fight started, furious, fast and full of vinegar. It was like I was complete. We both veered off at the exact same instant and start gutting some monsters. Just like old times.

No...Oranos is a bit far ahead. So it's time to even the odds. I focused my will into the earth and it started shaking furiously. I managed to keep it away from the campers and it let us start to overwhelm the monsters.

We were fighting a losing battle, while I was causing so much monster disintegration that you half expected there to be some sort of mist or at least an achievement bonus...and then the centaurs and Cyclopses came, the battle turned into a rout, defeat turned into victory...

And as usual, no one _really _got it.

Luke actually thought we were going to win. And that there was still a "we". Awkward...

"I helped him with that..." I said, pointing softly.

"Fuck." responded Luke softly. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck."

"Yeah. Running really is the only option here." I replied, calmly sheathing my swords.

"But...fuck why Percy? Why did you-

"Because this war is no longer about two sides. We can't just have some little battle and then nothing changes. We can't just let either side win Luke." I turned defiantly at him. "There is no simple way to say this, but both sides have to lose or we are both going to be examples."

Luke looked confused. "Percy, I have no idea what you're talking about, but for your own safety, I'm taking you down. You can't piss off the gods again, we have a plan and-"

"Yeah...about that..." I interrupted softly, and then turned to throw some sort of monster towards a wounded camper..."Bye!"

I turned and ran, knowing that Luke wouldn't follow. Sure, he could catch me easily. He could easily stop the one monster and save the wounded girl, grab a coffee and still comfortably catch me. But the problem was there were still some lone monsters, some of them with a lot more blood thirst than common sense attacking heroes. Some of the campers were basically dead unless some brave hero goes and saves them.

And Luke was damned to be the hero forever. He had to choose between saving his best friend and doing what was right.

I didn't even have to check what he was doing.

And now...for the gamble. As it is, I know where Typhon is going to go on his "direct line between where he came out and Olympus" and Oranos has lost enough troops...so I guess I might as well blow him up now.

xxx

"It's like watching a Russian winter move..." noted Hades bitterly, gazing upon Typhon. They had won the battle, Oranos was forced to regroup, they should have started hunting down the remnants of his army and maybe have a light feast, just to whet the appetite for the massive one which would have Oranos's head as the guest of honour.

They shouldn't have been waiting for slowly moving death to approach them.

"Huh. Well, all your sons tended to just charge in anyway..." responded Prometheues, catching the facial expression of the lord of the dead. "But I'm thinking that they didn't get that quality from you?"

"Indeed...we would have won the war already if it wasn't for Typhon. And currently it seems that we are going to lose it. Oranos literally only has to follow that...thing into Olympus." continued Hades bitterly, sitting down in his penthouse suite. Somehow he managed to drink really expensive wine instead of ambrosia. That was style and willpower.

"That would seem to be the situation." replied the titan, grinning, pouring himself a glass of whisky.

"Especially seeing as Oranos has upped all the titans attacks on the sea, the sky...even your realm...so the gods have their hands full?"

"Hmmph. We couldn't stop that thing without our full focus...if we shift our full focus to it, we lose every other battle that matters."

Prometheues smiled. "Yes...Typhon is considered near indestructible by...the usual means."

"I guess you have an escape card?" asked Hades softly, his grip on his scythe tightening, before loosening again and taking a huge gulp of wine.

"I am an escape card." answered Promteheues. "Now, some might think you would be hiding out in the underworld pending the gods imminent collapse?"

Hades stared directly ahead. "I might resort to that once Olympus falls. As of right now, I prefer to be here. Enjoy this world before it is burned to shit."

Prometheues laughed. "Nice. You know, I should have been pissed. I should have wanted to follow Oranos. But...unlike you fuckers, I actually remember him."

"I take it he wasn't progressive enough for your tastes?" inquired Hades softly.

"Oh, he was progressive. A different kind than me though. See, all these monsters, all these insane ideas. He created them. He was the one who created beast after beast in order to find...something. He was the one who would burn the world down and then not even watch the flames."

Hades raised an eyebrow. "You did not really understand what he was trying to achieve do you?"

"Create an invincible, subservient army? An eternal quest for all knowledge? No Hades. He was simply a child with a planet as it's playground. The hellhounds, the dracnaea, the hydras...they weren't planned. They are simply the creations of a bored fool. That's why they are so jealous of something the gods supposedly attach worth to, of what the gods properly made. That's why they fell good when they kill halfbloods."

Hades smiled, but there was no humour in it. "Ah...so he is not like you. He is just another...god."

Prometheues grinned and changed the subject. " A better question is, what is that half blood...Percy I believe, doing with what appears to be the largest grenade launcher ever?"

xxx

Now, from what I remembered of the initial design of the machine, it was essentially a celestial bronze grenade launcher, capable of fucking up a mountain if given time. It was basically designed to destroy, or at least inconvenience the fuck out of Typhon.

This...this was different. Undoubtedly Prometheues should have gotten his doctorate in engineering and then be given his own facility because no normal one is worthy of giving him a doctorate.

Now it was like a very big cannon which fired five shots at once, and the things it was supposed to fire, while defiantly still celestial bronze, were glowing with a red sheen and had the words " " inscribed on them. They also seemed to be pulsating.

"Ah..." I said, lifting one up lightly. I don't really know how an inanimate object which didn't even remotely look like a face could pull it off, but it appeared to be grinning.

A quick tutorial on bullets for those who have not experienced them before: there are two primary kinds. Those you don't want to be shot with and those you _really _don't want to be shot with.

The first kind can be called sharp points, since, well their points are sharp. When they hit a body they tend to go through. Sure, they still sometimes shatter and fragments start ripping the body apart from the inside, but at least that not the intention, which really eases the sting. Not the physical one though.

The second kind are called dull points...and you should be able to guess why. These are designed to shatter into as many pieces as possible when they hit their target. And Typhon is about to be hit by five of them made of celestial bronze. Every two seconds. For at least two minutes. And it seems that those shards are made of the grenades the machine would have have fired.

In short, Typhon might be the personification of destruction, but this weapon is the personification of Typhon's destruction. Or weaponification? Fuck language is way to limited for situations like this.

"Are you satisfied?" asked with cold tinted fear. "I don't know what this thing is supposed to do...but I had to bribe the military extensively to keep them from interfering."

"How would they..." And then I looked at the sheen again. "Is that plutonium? Are these mini atom bombs filled with celestial bronze?"

"Actually it's uranium, a specific isotope." corrected lightly. "That Doctor...Foresight you sent to help had some ideas which scared the hell out of me. And all our engineers. Although we have taken out five patents on his techniques to make the ammunition alone."

I looked at him sharply. It seems that people are pretty sure they can't lie to a god. "And the red sheen...is the blood of sun cows I trust. Prometheus always loved to use them when he needed the blood of the innocent. Combined with his regular tricks...a perfect fusion between the modern and the ancient. You know, gods cower in fear of the Master Bolt...but they forget that it was _made_...and that there is one titan who made mankind...and he can make much, much better things..."

"Very well, Lord Kronos. If you are satisfied I would appreciate it if you could honour your part of the deal." he said, composure there, but once you've completely lost it in front of someone, it's never really there again.

I touched his chest lightly.

"I am going to give you time now. But know, if this next part fails, humanity is doomed." I spoke softly, and glanced again at the machine. Fuck...it was huge. The Master Bolt was made...this...this is...

The years fell from his face and body.

I turned around to look at the approaching storm.

"There..was no storm forecast. Definitely not a thunder...tornado...what is that?!" he asked, and I could have sworn I had forgotten to remove the years. Ah, stress.

"That...is what I'm going to, for lack of a better word kill. Kill should be substituted for blow the living shitfuck out of repeatedly until it lies in a surprisingly small pile which I will then repeatedly stab." I grinned at Dare, and took out my sword.

"You're...going to kill that? It's your...enemy?" He tried vaguely. I'm guessing he gave himself a crash course on Greek Mythology, however, giant storm thing didn't really feature in most introductory texts.

"For the moment." I said, pressing the button.

xxx

"You have to admit, he is a magnificent killer. He doesn't defeat or outshine his opponents, he just kills them. There are no other words." said Hades, staring as the first salvo was fired. The machine somehow reoriented itself in a few milliseconds before launching the second salvo.

xxx

Typhon lit up like a bronze Christmas tree. A scream of some unholy agony filled the air as destruction _felt _for the first time in millennia.

Now, it was going well. There were explosions, we were definitely delivering a message, but the message was supposed to be "die!". Currently it's more like "take this and this and this and this".

"Is it working?" asked Dare worriedly.

"It's doing a lot...but not enough." I replied bitterly, realising what the words implied for the next few minutes of my life.

You can plan. Sometimes the best plan has moments like this in it, where even the slightest mistake brings you to fubar conditions. However, that's why we should have a metaphor. A metaphor which says sometimes, when the nuclear powered grenade launcher enfused with the blood of the innocent and the wrath of titans isn't enough, you have to hurl yourself at the stubborn sack of shit which refuses to die.

I stood upon the special part of the launcher, which was added when Prometheues predicted this eventuality. Right into the eye of the storm. Hopefully the eye is also it's weak spot.

I took Backbiter out and held it behind my head. I did not even know what I was supposed to cut on that thing. I was probably going to die right here, right now. But it's this or the failure of the plan.

" , I thank you for your services. Regardless of how this goes, you will most likely never see me again. I suggest you destroy the machine. It is not meant for mortals, not yet. And now..." I pressed the button and was hurled in an awesome arc towards the storm thing.

Several shots kept firing ahead of me, covering Typhon again and again and again. It was timed that the shots would stop the second that I hit Typhon. At least I hoped it was.

What the fuck was I supposed to stab?

Fuck it, I'm going for everything at this moment. Backbiter was on fire. Literally...I have a feeling Dr. Foresight was watching. The will of Kronos was also wrapping around the sword giving it a mixture of black light( antilight?) and flames.

The air around me suddenly became still as the machine seemingly self destructed and fired off it's final salvo.

I swear Prometheues had programmed this machine perfectly because two of the significantly bigger bullets/bombs/mobile death carriers literally missed me be two inches.

Just as I was about to hit Typhon he lit up completely in a furious red light. All except for one black part which was emitting a purple light. It also seemed that I was heading right for it.

Fuck the eye of the storm, I'm going for the heart of it.

With a mid air turn that looked like the insane offspring of the Prince Of Persia and Tony Hawk, I brought Backbiter into the heart up to it's hilt.

It took the wrath of two titans, several nuclear bombs and a suicidal half blood, but it appeared that Typhon could be defeated. Huh. My sword is stuck it it's pulsating purple thing. Which is now also shining. From the top, Typhon began...disintegrating? Or somehow it had sustained so much damage that it could no longer maintain it's whole form. And I was about seventy stories up, clinging to something that was rapidly disappearing.

Fuck.

xxx

"Well, that just happened." commented Prometheus drily. "I think it's time I go make an...offering to

Zeus. It seems you are at an...advantageous position again."

Hades stared intently at the skyline, which was basically disintegrating titan.

"He wants this war to last forever...or until some point..." he whispered softly.

"Yes, well..." sighed Prometheues. "He wants to kill. For as long as possible. That is all he ever wanted."

"But...how did he..." Hades whispered intently. "No...I must speak to Zeus...the boy might even be a bigger threat than Oranos. At least we know what Oranos is doing and who he is doing it for..."

In the shadows behind him, Prometheues grinned. It wasn't like a god to think too much. Except for this one. And Athena, but she was wise and brilliant in a way only a god could be. Supremely intelligent, capable of solving problem mortals would struggle with for centuries...yet she didn't get it.

"I suppose Typhon had a weak spot no one knew of." he suggested softly.

Although every part of Hades knew that something was wrong with what he saw, the calm suggestions and polite corrections of Prometheues (starting from more or less what he remembered and then veering into completely different events) and the disbelief of the others gods calmed him until he managed to change what he remembered. No god would go up against Typhon by himself, and it is absurd to suggest that a half blood could even attempt to do so.

That was fact, and reality could go fuck itself.

xxx

Ah, a Mexican stand off. With half bloods instead of Mexicans. Or should it be with swords and spears instead of guns? Either way, it's 4 vs 4 and there is no way to see who's gonna win.

"So Malcolm...ready to die?" said Clarisse venomously. But she looked nervous. She probably had a mission to destroy that Orb if I remembered correctly. And if she loses even one person, it might be impossible. No way Luke isn't guarding that thing. Or at least getting some of the hardcore campers to guard it.

Oh yeah, you probably need to be filled in again. See, the game changed again. There were some minor skirmishes, some big hits, but aside from the fact that both sides suffered massive causalities, nothing really changed. The sides were still pretty even. More even than they were before the whole Typhon incident in fact.

The war thus took it's next twist, with the gods, halfblood, hunters. etc camping out in New York as one giant target and Oranos's army circling them and preparing for a final strike.

However...the gods do not want to suffer a final strike, and so they turned to Prometheues, who wanted an...out. He found it in offering them an Orb, made from the golden fleece and the bones of some guy I don't remember. Essentially, it kept Oranos and monsters out of New York. And although his army hated the gods, they also hated each other and themselves and on some level, everything and themselves.

So the gods have decided to wait until Oranos's army basically implodes in on itself.

Now, Oranos wants the orb gone, the gods want more incest or something and I want well...

Back to the scene...

"Nice try Clarisse. You can't do this." said Malcolm, sounding more confident than the fucker probably felt. "You're some sort of raiding party and we're not guarding anything...you can't take care of us and the other guards at your real target so...just walk away. We don't want to hurt you."

"As if you could." she snorted, making a quick signal.

It might have gotten interesting at that point. Really funny and cool. But unfortunately, the voices were a lot more sane than me.

I slinked out of my merry hiding place, causing the usual staring and fear and uncertainty. All eyes on me. Probably a natural selection thing.

Oranos's party was suddenly moving back slightly, while the Braindead Forces of Olympus Inc. relaxed.

"You know Percy, I really had the wrong idea about you. Sure, you're an uncaring, sadistic son of a bitch, but you're _our _uncaring, sadistic son of a bitch." said Malcolm. "So...I guess you'll be leaving then?" he mockingly asked Clarisse.

I smiled at him. "Yeah, that's a nice word picture of me, but I like to think of myself as the tide turner. If the odds are uneven, I'm the plus 1. Camp half blood is about to be destroyed, I turn the tide. All of Olympus is about to be destroyed, I waste Typhon. Olympus is impregnable and Oranos a sitting duck which ironically, loves the taste of duck... well there are two ways this pattern can continue..."

Malcolm looked confused.

Malcolm looked decapitated.

The campers who were with him shrieked, panicked. Were dead. They didn't even have time to use their already drawn weapons. Well, one sort of the did but she died anyway okay?

"Who...what...seriously, what the fuck!" yelled one of the ex campers. I think I probably should have known him if it wasn't for the whole...you know, never socialising with anyone thing I got going on.

"You see, for the first time, Oranos might actually lose." I explained slowly. " And I'm rooting for the underdog. Let's go break that orb. Come on guys! Wooo! Wooo! Go team!"

"Wait...no...who's side are you on? I'm not walking into that base with a...fucking maniac..." said the guy again, looking at Clarrise.

Sigh. People can be _so _uncooperative.

"Then you're not walking into the base at all." I knocked him out. Hey, Oranos needs all the troops he can get. The others stared before I could take down the other guy and Clarrise, but the fourth girl was fast and managed to avoid being knocked out. She _should_ have tried to run. She _should _ have realised that she had lost the hero responsibilities when she gave up the title.

But for some reason she fought she should defend her fallen comrades.

That or she was avenging all the other people she may have loved that I have killed. She was yelling something like that but luckily I managed to block it out.

"Well, guess I'll have to kill another camper to balance that one out." I noted softly, glancing at the corpse. It wasn't pretty, even by corpse standards. Things were leaking out of her stomach, her skull was...leaking and dented due to the failed knock out attempt. Somehow I had even managed to wrench an arm out of her socket.

I might as well have been looking at more grass.

I'm gone. So very gone.

I have this image. Of a guy making jokes and getting punched and punched and punched until he can no longer make jokes.

Sometimes the punches continue long after that, and the jokes start again, but they're different.

**Authors Notes:**

**Back again. I will probably finish the story in the next few weeks. We still have three or four chapters left(depending on whether or not I split the next one into two or not) and luckily two of them are near complete. As I've mentioned, this story is actually just one giant prequel to a one shot I wrote, which will be the final chapter. Also the narration is geared towards Percy's mental state. I keep writing clearly and then I realised that's not what Percy sees. That's not how he'll tell the story.**

**Next Chapter: Whoever Wins Everyone Loses**


	16. Whoever Wins Everyone Loses

**Brothers By Rage**

**Whoever Wins, everyone Loses**

You know, there aren't good people and bad people. There are bad people and worse people.

I should be feeling guilty about all the things I've done. But I don't.

I should be feeling scared for what I'm about to do. But I don't.

I should be striding confidently towards the orb, defiant, proud, aware, not melting and hearing voices while maintaining a sort of sickly waddle.

_There needs to be more blood for the blood god..._

I paused for and shook my head irritably. This is the madness Jackson. This is the voices.

So far we have a priestess who keeps bitching to me about sacrifices and all the dark powers which can all be mine for a limited time only! Spill the blood of the impure now and we'll throw in more lies about eternity!

There is also, to as far as I can ascertain, the presence of a deluded son of Hades who thought he was some sort of Necromancer, someone who sounds like he actually pulled off quite a bit of Necromancy and someone who, like the priestess, seemed convinced that I need to start ripping limbs off of mortals and dancing in the merry bloody showers. Oh, and that I'd get also get some bitching power ups and shit for doing so.

The other voices were smarter. Probably the ones who hold a grudge against Kronos or are attempting to curry favour with the gods. They pretended to be various facets of my personality and kept trying to start internal arguments and throwing pseudo wise phrases which basically consist of "how do I justify myself, who am I, what have I become, know that blah blah blah do some introspection" mixed with "omg I'm so evil".

Huh. I'm hearing voices since the fucking Orb is suppressing Kronos ability to keep his fallen followers( it seems I was partially reconstructed from their essence, but I'm pretty sure I've used at least five whole followers up by now) out of my head.

_More blood for the bloodgod!_

Stupid priestess. As far as I can tell, she belonged to some tribe which were massacred by the Greeks waaayyyy back. She used some sort of weird magic to try and tap into the darkness and hate in humanity to use it on the people who killed her everything. She found Kronos. From her enthusiasm, I'm guessing it was a very effective relationship.

I bumped into a random guy, at this point too exhausted to really care about where I was going. He started to say something and paused. I'm not sure what happened next but the next second his arm hit a bus and he was thrown through a window.

_Right...now let's bring the mortal back! First, you must gather-_

Is that the person I am now? 'I' thought, beginning what I was sure would be another omg I'm so evil monologue which was thankfully cut short by the the priestess.

_More blood ,more blood!_

"Is that the person I am now? Really? Can't you fucking voices at least be striking or pithy or even borderline original?" I spat out, bending forward, clutching a lamppost to support myself.

_You struggle young son of Poseidon. I do not think you can count on finding this orb unhindered._

Yeah, I struggle. I'm feeling it too. All the parts of me which shouldn't be, which are really a bunch of other people's essence held together by the will of Kronos...it was like I was being stretched and compressed and burned and frozen all at once.

_You will have two minutes._

Fuck, I don't even know what I'm doing any more. I can barely walk. I can have a valid concern that attempting to walk will cause me to leave an organ trail. Everything was being tinted with red...oh wait, that was just my eye sockets bleeding. And I don't even want to know where that yellow liquid on my leg came from. Though if I had to guess...galbladder. I think I'm on my fourth one and whoever this one's was SUCKS.

I may not have any empathy, but I'm feeling a fuckload of people's pain right now. Grinning slightly I fell down to my kness, vision fading...I was almost tempted to sleep on the fucking sidewalk despite the pain, despite everything, just so I could stop...fuck I want to stop...

So...here you lay. The broken down hero, the defiant anti hero, the glowing symbol which is slowly going out. Was it worth it? When you killed simply because it was easier? When you mutilated because you didn't care? When even now, you're are exacting a plan not once thinking of the consequences only of your revenge? You fear failing but what happens if you succeed?

Fuck you, that's what. I stood up and immediately vomited. There were sirens in the air, dancing around and drowning the voices out a bit. Some of the paramedics picked me up, asked questions to which I must have responded as enthusiastically as a wax dummy.

What would all those who feared you say now? You know why the gods haven't struck you down? Why the campers haven't demanded that you be hunted and killed like the dog you are? Because in their heart they all knew this would happen. That your destructiveness would envelop you as well. You are not your actions, your words or any combination thereof...you are, right now, as you have always been, just a dying scared boy who is about to...

"Is he okay?"

learn what divine justice is, learn what pain and suffering really is, that eternity can be spread and spread and spread and all the worst beings in Tartarus are waiting eagerly, begging to get the first shot in on the upstart who would doom them all...

"He seems to be suffering from shock...and whatever ripped that guy apart also did a number on him. Oh god his entire middle is coming apart..."

_Your will kept you together this long boy. You're fading. The Lord Kronos needs you know more than ever._

This is where it ends. This is where you die and go to your very own hell. A failure in everything, no ends to justify your means, no claims at greatness, no legend, just a dirty footnote in a greater story, just a failure, just a

"His heart rate is skyrocketing, his blood pressure is almost high enough to physically rip apart his body I don't know what in god's name is going on..."

Things were stuck in my body, I was handled with care and dragged into an ambulance. For a second I realised there was still screaming around me, someone was putting the disarmed man into his own ambulance.

"Nothing we can do...he is-"

Nothing you could have done. This is what happens to all who think they can defy the gods. This is the end of all the mortals who fly too close to the sun.

You know, at least eternal damnation will be free of the god damn voices.

"Just sit back, we need some experts to examine this kid. Until then he's in god's hands."

Until then he's in god's hands.

Until then he's in god's hands.

Until then he's... in... god's...hands

No mortals allowed near the sun.

Gods hands.

Burn in the sun.

Fuck no.

"Lie down you're going to-"

The man had tried to restrain me when I sat up. With a light shove I pushed him into the door. Or through the door. Might not have been that light.

The other guy, was a little caught up in shock as my middle and the rest of me suddenly appeared a lot more wholesome.

_Kill them all! The bloodgod demands it!_

No time for that. I've got some immortals to end. I calmly took out Riptide and stabbed though to the front of the ambulance, causing the driver to panic a bit as I sliced more and more of the separating metal out of the way.

"The natural history museum." I whispered, noticing that we were close.

Action, I need to move, it's hard to be defiant against all mighty powers which are trying to kill you if you're just standing still. Action, a goal, even blood. All of it makes it easier. 

"Sir, you have suffered a tremendous..."

Luckily, he shut up when the sword was right beneath his throat. I could hear some faint whispering from the priestess now, but I guess my will was shutting her up as well.

Funny who wielding a weapon makes you a sir.

"We're ah here..." said the driver, who had run many a happy red light.

"Thank you." I said, before jumping out the back.

"Wait..." yelled the other guy, the one who kept noticing that I should be dead. "What are you...how are...where are you going?" he finished quite listlessly.

I turned to look at him.

"The sun."

xxx

Slink. This was getting repetitive. Blood trailed after me and the mortals were screaming and running out of the way. One or two dismissed it as some sort of prank, looking up at the cameras in a sarcastic sort of way. The expressions didn't change much when I disembowelled the fucker who decided to "touch the special exhibit".

_YES YES THE BLOOD GOD IS LAUGHING THE SKIES WILL SOON-_

Huh. Finally I am a bit tempted to cut down on the homicidal rampage. But then again...

Yelling. Lots of it, but with all the voices having a party in my head it was hard to identify a single strain of words. But, to asses the situation...

Security guards. Pointing guns at me while yelling.

And no they're shooting at me. Oh well...the first bullet hurt like fuck. The second hurt like a wound which had salt, vinegar and hot sauce spread around it by the overly sharp claws of a demon.

Once again, I fell over, pretending to be dead. Two of the guys hesitantly approached me, muttering some codes and other phrases into a walkie talkie. One of them prodded me with their gun.

"They said to make absolutely sure..." said the one on the left. "Apparently this fucker can take a fuckload of punishment and then just shrug it off."

"Not even a halfblood can take five shots in the chest and "shrug it off" " replied the one on the right, calmly adjusting his sights.

"This one is special." stated the one on the right, and I felt the metal barrel pressed against me eye. "See you in Erebus."

A trigged was pulled. A brain suddenly processes some new information in the form of a bullet.

"Welcome back young Jackson." said the other guard, grinning maliciously and helping me up.

"Never been here before." I slurred, while propping myself up.

"Always a first time." stated the guard, who grinned and started laughing as his read a message on his cellphone. "Half the payment has been poured in."

"So...what exactly was your motivation for..." I hesitated on my next word choice. "Reassessing your options about who you worship?"

"You might be the most pivotal person in the world right now...but I'm still not justifying myself to you kid." He flashed his phone at me. "Money kid. A lot of it. And the guarantee that the world will still be standing afterwards."

"You believe a guy who works for Kronos is not planning to get his Armageddon on?" I asked, checking my heart rate. I had about fifty minutes left, unless that orb gets got.

"You believe there's a difference between gods and titans? Cute." He replied casually, firing off two more shots and dropping two more guards. The guy looked...interesting to say the least. Tribal tattoos on his arms, chewing gum like he's on a mission and fingerless gloves for next level cockiness. "Ever wonder why the gods deal with kids all the time? Because in this world, adults get tired of their shit. There's no winning in their world, and all the lies and shit they spewed about the titans...kid, it don't matter shit which immortal beings sit in Olympus and ignore us, all you can do...is get a shitload of money and enjoy your life as much as you can. Then you die and stand on a field for eternity." He broke down laughing again. "So much bullshit..." He smiled and pointed at a door, and offered me two handguns he had looted. I guess dealing with the orbs defenders wasn't part of the contract. I declined as gracefully as I could.

I took out backbiter and held it it tightly with both my hands. Mostly because one hand might have dropped the thing.

Bracing myself, I kicked the door down. Or rather kicked a hole in it, which I then jumped out of before opening the door and charging in.

Stupid mortal wounds.

xxx

Luke was staring at a map like it had to answers to everything. There was a cup of coffee next to the map. His seventh that day.

"Every possible way..." he whispered softly. "They can attack in so many ways...but I think here..."

Some of the other senior campers were sitting around him. It was still a democracy in the sense that everyone got a vote in what should be done. But nothing was ever done.

A harried looking girl ran into the room. Some people looked up at her, still bored.

"The orb...it's going to be attacked-

"That's fine." said Luke. "It'll have to be half bloods, and none of them will be able to take the guards, except maybe for Clarrise. Besides, only seven of their troops are unaccounted for. They orb is safe."

"Not from Oranos's troops. It's Jackson."

Luke looked up, and took his up sword. "How far ahead is he then?"

"It looks like he broke our lines about two hours ago and-"

"We won't catch up. And we can't be sure whether or not he's working with Oranos or...or..."

"He's just insane?" suggested on of the Ares campers.

"That or he has an overly elaborate master plan." supplied Annabeth. "But most likely he's insane."

"Right...right..." said Luke, looking at the map and hurriedly putting on his gloves and armour. The other campers looked confused, except for Thalia and one of the Ares campers who imminently ran out to get the rest of the campers up and armed. " We can only assume that the orb will be destroyed. Hopefully, Oranos is not aware this is going to happen, although he will defiantly notice after it does. " He paused for a moment, and his eyes unfocused. "No...he most likely won't know it's going to happen. So get everyone ready to defend New York. We hold the bridge, we beat Oranos back. And then...I'll go and kill him myself."

The rest were silent.

"You might need help." noted Annabeth softly, not looking directly at him.

"No...he's the one who needs help. And there is only one way to give it to him." said Luke mouth smiling at her, eyes doing something else.

xxx

"Hey kids I'm here to remind you that you all suck." I said as I fell forwards into the room, more to get past the awkward silence than anything else.

Now...you could ask me who was guarding the room. You really could. But I didn't really catch a glance at them premutilation. See, I'm guessing Luke didn't think I would make a play for the Orb. Which implies posting people who would really really want to kill me(badly enough to sneak behind enemy lines if left close enough to them) would be stationed there, where they could also be monitored.

They ran at me. The one girl heaved her spear at me and was unpleasantly surprised when I let her skewer me, my momentum carrying me right in from of her, where I flawlessly decapitated her. I was getting really good at it, even without my ridiculous strength. It's all about the angles.

I then turned, using the spear in my chest to deflect the next attacker who was taking a pretty suicidal run at me. The third guy had a bow and arrow and was letting loose. However, his rage and possible fear were really fucking with his aim, causing him to hit the other guy in his arm.

"Fuck! Just let me kill him first!" Yelled the sword guy, before I cut him down with a flying leap. Into his face. With my sword. Damnit, I really need to explain less and just imply more.

The bow and arrow guy turned to look at me. I was about three feet from him, and his arrow was pointed right at my heart. "Relax...he's dead." he spat out at the girl who was cowering in the corner, shooting me where a second before my heart had been.

Unfortunately, a different part of my chest was now there. It was over. Too much blood lost. Too many wounds.

Rage. Rage at the dying light.

The archer took out a knife and eyed me warily, noting the way I was swaying. One massive swipe at him and Backbiter flew out of my hands.

"Well, this was a bit of a let down." said the archer. "Thought you were supposed to be a legend or something."

The girl however left out a rather enjoyable "eeep" when Backbiter sailed into the orb, smashing it into oblivion.

_Oh Delicious._

The archer looked at the orb in mild disinterest, pretty much confirming that he really wants me dead and things like an orb crucial to the survival of the gods was secondary. He started walking towards me in a self satisfied stroll, when suddenly...

Ready for the anime tranformation scene. We need lights, we need music, we need to permanently capture this guy's expression as my entire body started miraculously healing and I started smiling, then grinning, then flat out laughing. I ripped the spear out, which was actually doing a pretty good job of keeping my liver in my body, and broke it with one hand. The hole it left miraculously sealed itself with a pretty swirling motion.

He looked hesitantly at his knife, which I causally grabbed and shoved through his chest. The girl started shrieking and running towards us, swinging wildly, bleeding _everywhere._ Poor curator...hopefully red is a good colour for some of these exhibits.

Time for the final phase of the plan. I sauntered out towards the empire state building, a delightful spring in my step. Only one more part. The hardest part, but still.

xxx

"Taxi." said Luke loudly, while bandaging his sides up in the middle of a public road. One came, took one look at him and was about to drive away. Luke used the mist to mindfuck him and the man let him in. However, Luke's control broke and the man soon realized he was carrying a bleeding teenager in his Taxi. He also, for a split second, saw horrible monsters in the distance, and that some buildings were filled with archers. And then he didn't.

There are many ways to describe the fight with Oranos which occurred when the barrier broke. The most accurate would be blood covered fucked up mayhem. Luke, assembled his troops in a defensive position, allowing them full use of every defence New York could muster, from animated statues to deadly auto turrets to every blessing the gods could, or maybe would, give.

As soon as the barrier broke, every mortal fell into a deep sleep and a few lesser gods showed a new allegiance.

If the mortals were awake, they would have scene carnage, explosions, massive monsters fighting defiant humans, Cyclopses streaming from the ocean in aid, even the dead rising up as Hades's sheer rage at Percy Jackson once again dooming everyone overtook him.

Wave after wave battered against the lines.

They held.

At last, with blessings shining over them the half bloods drove Oranos back.

And in the centre, a wide circle around him since every monster who came close was sent straight down, stood a man whose battle was only going to begin.

"You have about four hours, after that he can attack again at any time..." said Thalia. "A lot of his allies left because they thought the barriers made it a lost cause...if he gets them back..." She didn't finish her sentence.

Luke started sprinting, ignoring his wounds, ignoring everything except...

Luke started sprinting faster.

Hopefully faster than divine justice.

As he hit a road he noticed people were regaining their consciousness.

"Take me to the empire state building. Or just circle around it for a while." coughed Luke.

"Kid, I'm taking you to a hospital, you're bleeding all over my seats. That'll cost extra you know. What the hell are your parents-"

Luke took out his sword and rested it behind the cab driver's head. "Firstly, we're going to the empire state building. Secondly, If you try anything, I will kill you. Thirdly, _I'm getting better_." Luke ate an ambrosia square and closed his eyes.

"Uh...may I ask why are you pushing yourself this badly?" asked the cab driver, one eye on the road, one eye on the sword.

"Let's just say I've spent my whole life doing stupid things, along with two girls and a guy who did even stupider things. And now, he's going to do some things which will damn him forever. So I have to kill him before he does." Luke shifted. His ribs were healing but he won't be 100% for this fight. And in all honesty, he might need to be 150% for this fight.

"Kid, you are crazy. Seriously, the blood loss probably made you delirious. Let me take you to a hospital and then I'll-"

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU GODDAMN MORTAL!" yelled Luke. "What the hell do you possibly know about me? What is the worst that can happen to you? Divorce? Wife going to cheat on you? Your best friend will die? Well, my best friend is going to be tortured forever unless I kill him now! How's that for a fucking dilemma you fucking asshole!?"

"I'm...I'm not really religious but I think you might be misunderstanding-"

"I'm not exactly religious either. But several gods really believe in me."

xxx

Now, all I had to do was get into the empire state building.

And then go fuck shit up.

Unfortunately, Luke was standing just a few feet away from me.

"Huh." I said, noting his dishevelled appearance. "Are you here to join me or do you seriously think you can take me with those wounds?"

"I don't know about can." said Luke, taking out his sword. "But I'm pretty sure about must."

I took out Riptide and Backbiter, one in each hand. My gloves felt unusually sweaty. If this went wrong, our entire plan was so fucked. This I exactly why I hate any plan which isn't "kill everything between you and your goal".

"Any last words?" asked Luke, and I saw he was really serious. He was going to try and kill me, probably to try and save me or some other messed up reason. His hands were shaking, he was sweating , he was nervous.

And I would still probably die fighting him.

I paused for a moment, and thought of three words by which I had lived my life.

And which really shortened my life as well, to be honest.

"I regret nothing."

Like my hand striking at Hades.

Like me jamming Kronos's eye into my skull.

Like me killing people.

Like my risking everything on this last, crazy gamble.

All of this, I have finally surpassed. I am no longer just the rage they put in me. I am now either fully, wonderfully, gloriously insane or...I win. That's all a man can be against gods. That's all I could ever be.

I regret nothing.

xxx

He was wounded. He was tired. But above all, he was Luke, and this wasn't going to be easy. It was two swords against one but his skill was still incredible. As soon as we began, he kicked my right arm away parried my left sword and punched me in the face. I headbutted him in the chest.

For all our talk about killing, it looked like we were only trying to beat the shit out of each other.

Parry, punch, kick, knee, slash , stab...

"We might as well throw the swords down." I said. "Neither of us wants to maim the other."

Luke, breathing heavily, almost nodded. But then his resolve came back, and this time, we were going for the kill.

Now, two swords against one swords is really an annoying business. Sure, I could attack him from two side but moving my body like that left my entire centre open. And as he was the faster one of us, I couldn't leave any opening. Besides, this was more than just a battle.

I kicked Luke away and gazed at both my swords. Backbiter, given to me by Kronos. Riptide, given to me by my father. I guess it was pretty symbolic when I threw Riptide down and continued with only Backbiter.

This time...four years of training together was biting both of us in the ass. This wasn't us trying to buy time or execute some plan, this was us trying to kill each other.

He knew all my moves, I knew all his. All our feints were ignored, all our dodges predicted. Really, we could go on forever like this. I half feel Luke wanted to. I knew I wanted to.

Despite all the emotions, despite all the pain, this was the most fun I had in a long time. It was like our training sessions back when it was just the four of us.

Luke managed to get a lucky blow in on my arm, drawing first blood.

"Damnit Percy! It didn't have to be like this!" roared Luke, coming in for a few wild strikes, before I could kick him away again.

But for the first time, I was angry as well.

"Who the fuck are you to talk about anything! You know we're fucking dolls for the gods to play with and you're just sitting there, doing nothing!" I was breathing heavily and removed what was left the armour I stole from the museum. "You think you're going to please them? You think it's going to be somehow different after this war? You think they won't kill people we love just to show as our place and that they can? You fucking think things can go on like this just because they're scared shitless of dying?!"

Luke was glaring back, but he didn't respond. I was throwing thoughts he already had, was constantly having, back into his face.

"What? Did you forget your lines?" I asked bitterly.

"This was never about the gods being good or bad." whispered Luke. "This was about the alternative to gods being titans. The alternative to apathetic motherfuckers who watch us suffer being sadistic motherfuckers who will love to see us suffer. This was between us making a sacrifice of ourselves to save all the people we care about."

"Well...at least you have a bad reason for why you're fighting." I answered, and we continued.

He was still pressing harder but he was also tiring faster. And when I started pushing back, those wounds would probably open again.

He jumped up and brought his full weight down on me, trying to end it quick. However, even when he isn't bleeding everywhere I'm stronger than Luke and I managed to flip him over me. Spinning around one eighty and blocking.

"You know...we keep asking the wrong questions. It's how the play works. Because if the right questions are asked, everything changes. Are the gods good? Who the fuck cares. Are the titans? Same answer. The real question is...what is the difference between gods and titans? I had the right question, but I gave the wrong answer. The difference is...humans." I spat out half of one of my incisors, which I guess broke at some point.

"We made the fucking gods...titans are the natural order, humans are when concepts can be melded and shaped by a thousand different opinions and feelings and thoughts on what a concept is! War...war is passion, war is hate, war is desire to change, war is desire to win...there are too many people, too many screaming different things for the gods to be anything any more! We shape them but we don't even agree on what we're shaping! What the fuck is war really? What is wisdom? What is hunting to us?"

I was screaming blindly now, slashing and actually beating Luke back.

"Gods are nothing without us, we made them ,we trapped them! Humanity can't be ruled over by something it controls! We can't allow these fucking weak cunts who we fuel and power with our ever waking thought to ever think they're above us! To play with us! To judge us!"

"The gods are dead Luke. I don't know how, I don't know why, but they can't really think for themselves, they can't can't change, there's never anything new about them, they're a fucking divine order of zombies. That's why history loops and repeats and every line is scripted and you can guess what the next one will be! Only in Greece were they alive, did they do anything new! Now...they just repeat, endlessly and they want to keep repeating endlessly! They're fucking things! You can't die for a thing...I can't kill you for a thing..."

Luke collapsed to one knee, breathing heavily, bleeding freely. Fuck. I wasn't thinking straight or even speaking straight. Well, keep it simple.

"Right now, you can either live for me or die for them. Choose." I spat out.

"Option C." replied Luke calmly, standing up shakily, stretching his shoulders.

I shook my head.

"Then I would say see you in the afterlife brother...but by the time I'm done, there won't be any."

Luke laughed. "You know, I almost want to hear your plan. Almost. But you snapped. You're done. I will see you again brother. This life or the next." He spat out a small amount of blood.

He took a stance which indicated he was going to kill me or die. Left himself complete open but ready to attack. "I would shout "for the gods", but it's not for the gods..."He grimaced and fell down to one knee again.

"It's for you."

I sighed. "Can't stand...care explain how you're going to beat me?"

"Cause you can't count...you can't beat all three of us Percy." said Luke, leaning against his sword.

I ducked suddenly as a spear thrust sailed past my shoulder and a knife went swinging past my ear.

I managed to deflect Thalia but Annabeth was invisible now and in short, making my life annoyingly hard. I literally had to swing massive 360 swipes all the time to ensure she wasn't close. Which was tiring. You could probably figure it out but I wanted to stress how annoying it was.

"Give up Percy!" yelled Annabeth, slashing at me again from fuck knows where. "You can't win!"

"That all depends." I answered, grinning around at Thalia and Annabeth. "It's really a matter of perspective...see it's been raining the last few days..."

They didn't get it. Sure, the ground _was _dry.

Annabeth was invisible...too bad the ground around me literally exploded in a fountain of gushing water, knocking her into the air. The baseball cap was knocked off...with an over theatrical hand gesture the current forced the cap below the ground and into the sewers...

"Sure, you might see the sewers as the price you pay for indoor plumbing...but currently, I'm thinking off them as underground rivers...". I grinned and another section of road exploded, knocking Luke down who was getting ready to charge me again.

Hah. So Thalia wanted to prove I wasn't the only one with powers and brought the thunder...however, I just had to will the water away from me...and ground is a wonderful isolator.

And now, they did the thing which generic movies feel is either impossible or just very unsportsmanlike...

They all attacked together.

I had to dodge Thalia's spear, which put me too close to Annabeth's knife, which I couldn't block because I had to parry Luke's blade...result? Knife to right arm...which should have crippled it, but I had some rather special flesh.

I did the logical thing and and grabbed Annabeth's other arm and pulled her closer to try and deliver a headbutt, but Thalia went to stab me again, giving me the novel idea of spinning around Annabeth and using her as a shield. Unfortunately, Annabeth was not one of those...watcha call it? Oh yeah, one of those idiotic villains who just die.

She brought he foot down on mine, and then started to elbow me. Meh. I threw her into Thalia and then continued fighting Luke for the few seconds that bought me. They both turned back, but a second explosion of water beat them back again.

_Longer._

Yay. Can't beat them...can't be beaten. Just when the fight is at it's hardest, fate decides it has to become even harder...

Luke was knowing moving his sword in really ornate curves, constantly forcing me to move my arms a lot. Which would really bite me in the ass if I come back into range of Thalia's spear. And Annabeth...well, at least her invisibility gimmick was over but she was still quick and kept trying to get me from the side.

This continued for about five more minutes until...

_It's done._

Hah...luckily, I'm so damn tired at the moment this will be a very convincing defeat.

But seriously, why break in when they extend you the courtesy of dragging you in with chains?

The knife was in my arm again. Spear through the leg. And Luke for some reason pulled off a flying dropkick into my ribs.

And so, two stab wounds, several broken ribs, one knee busted and I didn't even want to look at my right arm...yeah, I lost.

"Finish it..." I whispered softly. "Before..."

"Close your eyes." said Luke. "I don't want to look in your eyes when..."

"Too late..." I replied, and Luke looked confused until he saw a shining God stand behind him.

"Father..."

"Sorry Luke, but this is pointless. Very emotional, very good for retelling, but pointless. Even if you kill him, we'll just resurrect him and take him to Olympus anyway." He looked down at me and there a pleasant expression, apart from the evil glint.

"Further more, you are all needed at the front lines...Oranos can attack again at any moment."

"Father..."

"Luke, the boy has to stand trail. He is the son of Poseidon, so we will grant him that. Now...say goodbye to him. You have my word that no harm will come to him until after the verdict." Luke was shaking and I was pretty sure he might have disobeyed his father which would have fucked up the plan. Luckily, Thalia took the initiative.

"Anything you wanna say Percy?" asked Thalia, helping me up and securing my hands behind my back. She also didn't look directly at me.

"Well, I planned to mutter mission accomplished in the hopes that you would then let me go to thwart my plans but it seems rather stupid now." I answered.

"It didn't have to be like this." said Annabeth, and I saw she was crying. And not from the wounds I gave her with considerable skill. This was some raw emotion.

"It did. But it's not you guy's fault. I am this life. I had to do this. And I will take the consequences." I fell forwards after saying that, probably not really lending any strength to my words. I grinned

"Annabeth...before I go to the whole eternity of suffering thing...ah...you see I had this list and I pretty much did everything except kiss a pretty girl and you see, we're currently like in 'n closed group of four and..."

"Shut up." she said, and kissed me. I had no real thing to compare it too but if they were all like that then dammmmmnnnnnn. I really didn't prioritise right.

"Now Thalia." I said. "I know this may seem slightly less sincere but the list also-"

And she slapped me really hard through the face. Luke and Annabeth sorta giggled and then we broke down and laughed. Both of their laughs turned to sobs half way through.

For a second, it was like it was all those years ago. Us against the world.

But then it was over and they were part of the world again.

I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I passed out while we walked and was dragged to my cell in Olympus. They were all gone when I opened my eyes again.

Light would be so fucking proud of me. All according to keikakku.

xxx

"This time we lost more than his hand." said Annabeth, eyes still wet but no longer crying.

"The Percy we now has been dead for two years. He's died in a cell with only a seven foot tall demon for company." said Luke. "I knew, I just didn't want to say anything. Some part of me..."

Thalia was looking the most worried. "He'll be killed. On the day before my sixteenth birthday...that means..."

"Yeah. Tomorrow. They won't take any chances." said Luke. "They want him out of the way so you can save the world. They'll probably grant you a wish or immortality or something if you pull it off..." He looked at Thalia in a beseeching way.

"Don't worry...I'll ask them to let Percy reincarnate without his memories or something. He didn't deserve the live he got..."

"Funny...right at the end there...he was sort of normal again. Sort of like the wise cracking idiot we all loved..." said Annabeth softly, but no one heard her.

xxx

I'm being dragged towards Olympus, in chains made of pure gold splattered with blood. Two giants are doing the dragging. I managed to prob my body up so it looked like I was waterskiing on the ground.

Hey, at least it's still a stylish way to travel.

It's time for a kangaroo court, with gods instead of pissed of people who just want me off of their land. And the prophecy will probably alter an already pretty bad verdict. Thalia's birthday is tomorrow (A+ for timing) and mine is still more than a year away...

No way I could fuck everything up for the gods right? No way the prophecy refers to me. With Thalia older and far more willing and capable and me being sent to my death...

No way.

Joking!

See, Kronos could have talked to me a lot more if it wasn't for one simple detail. He was the Lord of time. And he used all the power he still had...

To make me about one year older.

Welcome to the endgame.

PS. QUEEN ME BITCHES!

**Authors Notes:**

**Well, I'm back and this story will be finished. We just have two chapters left, and the next one is basically done. I don't really have an excuse for why this update took so long, other than I spent some time with some girls who made me realise who I really was and then I became suicidally depressive. Long story. Lots of self pitying angst. Wrong way to handle it. **

**Always rage, rage against the dying light.**

**Next Chapter: The Almost Grande Finale**


	17. The Almost Grande Finale

**Brothers By Rage**

**The Almost Grande Finale **

"You're going to die Jackson." said Ares, smirking at me from across my cell.

I was bound in the chain equivalent of a straight jacket. Moving anything from the neck down was literally impossible. But then again, against the gods my tongue was always my favourite weapon.

"Oh...can you maybe give me a phone then, so I can call my stockbroker and tell him we should stop trying anything long term?" I asked softly.

"Even here..." muttered Ares, shaking his head mockingly. "Your dad's probably right. You're batshit crazy. Or maybe you just think we'll go easy on you if you are. Either way, believe me, we have some _fun _ things planned for you."

"No roller coasters though right? I have a thing about heights." I quipped back, vaguely wondering if I could chew through the chains. Being unable to move was getting really tiresome. And I had this annoying itch on my left leg.

"Even here..." repeated Ares. "You're still the most annoying idiot I've ever had to talk to. And you just don't stop...then again...I suppose you realize that you can't make us hate you even more. The punishment can't get any worse so why bother acting respectful now? Yeah, that makes sense." said Ares, looking down at me, as if I was something disgusting.

I laughed. God was finally good for something.

"Ares, Ares, Ares...you don't get it. You're making up reasons, you're trying to hide from the truth. But you've already realized why I'm taking blasphemy to whole new levels." I gave him a predatory smile. "It's because I am, completely and utterly, unafraid of all of you."

He tried to laugh it off but the fear was there. I was playing mind games with Ares...kind of like playing Minesweeper on beginner but still. I had no other entertainment.

"Kid, you make me want to call Heaphestus, cause you have way too many screws loose." commented Ares, grinning at me again. Not bad at getting his composure back.

"Yeah. But that's just it...do I? Ask yourself, how many times should this war have ended?"

Ares stared at me. "If Typhon had continued to draw us away Oranos's main force might have..."

"That was all me. I did something all the gods could not do." I smiled again, and due to the lighting, that was pretty much all I was to him.

"And when we charged upon his army...even the armies of Hades and Poseidon charging down on him..."

"Me again." I grinned. " I turned that tide."

"And now...Oranos circles us and the full might of Olympus waits for him. What are you going to do this time Jackson? You are insignificant! With a mere thought I can turn you into fucking death!" So rage kills grammar. Tragic.

I looked deep into the god of wars eyes.

"You can do that...but what can I do? What is keeping me so calm and fabulously composed?"

"Die, be tortured...lotsa variety on that subject but that's what it all boils down to." said Ares, trying desperately to regain control of the conversation.

"Yeah...that's not all though. You're going to have to find out why this is only almost the grande finale." I said smilingly.

"Leave him Ares." came a calm, clear voice commandingly through the corridor. God damn Athena alliteration.

"And Minesweeper just got jacked up to expert level. I would rub my chin cunningly but I'm kinda tied up." I tried wearily, noting that I'd have to be a master baiter to get her all mad at me.

"Is he still pretending to be insane?" asked Athena, after watching me for what I'm sure was a calculated amount of time.

"Succeeding at being insane. I don't give a fuck any more." responded Ares, shaking his head wearily, and taking his shades off. The fires were burning oddly now, so I guess they pretty much give away his emotions.

"Mmmm...so the boy still thinks he can get out of this?" she asked softly, again trying to pierce me with those grey eyes.

"I was a real hero. And a real human bean." I replied. I swear, the only way they could make this more boring was if they started screening Drive. I have no idea why Luke dragged me to watch that shit.

"You astound me." stated Athena simply. "There is no conceivable way for this to end well for you, yet you're still defiant. The sword of Damocles hangs above your head, we are about to cut the string, yet you smile like it's never going to fall."

"Timely reference." I shot back. "I bet it's your fault the Americans haven't switched over to the metric system yet."

She looked at me again, and this time I could see a hint of unease in her eyes. Gods can be wise, gods can be smart.

Gods can't think. I don't know how to put it any more simply, but whatever makes us human and make those leaps of faith and thought...is just not there for gods. Like a computer pretending to be a human. Maybe it's a sort of built in protection to prevent you from going insane over millennia. Maybe it was there and dies out after a few centuries. Fuck knows, I'm no psychiatrist, but I have enough problems to make several of them very rich.

"Leave him Ares." said Athene, walking away slowly. "One way or another, this ends tomorrow."

"Little fucker." spat Ares out, but I guess he was shaken too.

Really, this should be the ending. And it almost is.

xxx

"They're not attacking?" asked Luke calmly, once again drinking coffee in the gallon amount. Or the 3.71 liter amounts.

"Apparently Oranos is willing to wait until after Percy has been killed." replied Annabeth, who was pretending to drink Green tea.

"Huh...guess the war's over then." said Luke calmly, and broke the cup over his knee. His hands suggested that it wasn't the first thing he broke against himself. The debris around the room also gave a few hints.

"We still have a lot of work to do though." said Thalia calmly, not looking at Luke. "This war is far from over."

"Let me rephrase...my war is over then." clarified Luke. He picked up his sword and held it so that the light glinted impressively. He should be feeling it. He should have the rage and defiance flowing through him like piss and caffeine. Instead there was nothing. No end goal, no way to win, only worse and worse ways to lose.

"No...not now Luke. Not fucking now." yelled Thalia, grabbing him by the shoulders and hurtling him against the wall. "You are going to end this. For Percy. For me. For yourself. It's not fair, it never was fair, but now you're just being a bitch about this. Every person in this world has made peace with the fact that there are things they can't change, the only difference is the things you can't change can speak and sit on a mountain trying to look wise!"

"What the fuck do you want me to do?" Luke yelled back, the sword, twisting in the light. " There is nothing left for me in this fucking world, because always, always those fucking voices will be there, reminding me that I'm a failure, that I could have done this better, that somebody is going to spend an eternity suffering the worst fate imaginable and right after I condemned him to it...right after that, I got on my fucking knees, sucked his torturers cocks and then thanked them for it!"

"It's not your fault!" screamed Annabeth desperately, throwing herself against Luke, trying to hold him. "And Thalia might still get him out of it!"

Luke stared down at her, and for some reason, she saw Oranos in all his fallen glory.

"You want to know what my fucking fault is? That I had two choices, two good choices, I could end the age of the gods...I could lead Oranos's armies and there would be no hope for the gods, their fucking taint would be removed...instead, I stopped, am stopping, what could have been humanity's only hope. You think we're safe? With apathy? With bored fucking teenagers watching the same movies again and again and again and again? How long before they want something new? How long before the wars escalate and we all start burning and being poisoned so they can stop being bored? Because it's coming. It's fucking coming. Every empire, Greece, Rome...ends horribly when they get bored. And then the flame starts somewhere else. The problem is...when this one ends...there ain't going to be anywhere else. It's gotten too big. The play is going to consume the world when the stage collapses."

Luke sat down heavily. "My other good choice, at least for me, not so much the rest of the human race...was to kill Percy or leave him in that cell. But I closed my eyes and let this happen. I let all of this happen."

"Luke...I think Oranos might have-"

"No...no he hasn't. The fucker didn't even need to, because he knew I was figuring it out. There are no half bloods above 25. None left. You know why? Because eventually you figure it out, like I did. Eventually, everyone sees it clearly when year after year the monsters come like they were commanded. Eventually you realize the only way to fix this fucking world is the kill the 're not even things to them. And there is no banner left. There is no way to fight them. It starts today, when Percy's head hits the floor. The final act."

"Drink this and calm down." said Thalia briskly, stuffing a bottle of brandy into Luke's hand. "Your in shock, and in denial and very very very angry."

"Luke...let's just think about this okay?" suggested Annabeth softly,after Luke drank enough to sear his throat. "The final age of the empire...how does that play go?"

"Well...obviously there is a lot of dissension between the minor gods, the god and the half bloods, the mortals are you usually at the height of their empire...and that's the setting. Their are always two pivotal characters, the two leaders, one of the gods faction, and the leader of the titans faction. The Champion of Olympus and the demon of ...of course, it's always Kronos doing the uprising, so the play is different this time...but that probably doesn't matter...that...that...the..."

Luke suddenly stood up and stared at the wall like it was graffitied with the meaning of life.

"What?" asked Thalia. "So it's Oranos this time? Doesn't really matter what flag is on top of the titan army right?"

"No...no...I thought it was me and Clarisse...but it can't be her...it's me and Percy...everything else is me and Percy...and that means...he has a plan. That means...Kronos is somehow...oh fuck...when is Percy's trail?"

"It should be over now..." said Thalia, and the words died away as the explosions started.

xxx

I had to be dragged into the delightful hell of the throne room. The chains were wrapped thickly around my limbs and I'm pretty sure my knees and ribs are broken . I was thrown right at the entrance of the room, all twelve gods staring down at me. Wait...recount...thirteen...why the fuck was Demeter here? I can't even remember when I insulted her.

My father merely looked disappointed. Ares and Athena (along with the majority) appeared to wish me a very painful and drawn out death followed by some really creative punishments for eternity. Even Dionysus appeared seriously pissed.

"Drag yourself closer." commanded Zeus coldly.

I grinned and started. On my knees, since my legs really didn't seem capable of bending.

"Is this necessary?" asked Athena.

"He has endured far worse than this." commented Hades dryly. "And he might as well consider it practice for his new home."

"Indeed...but it would not do for us to stoop down to his level. We cannot allow more of our children to follow his route." responded Athena.

Drag. Pain. Drag. Coughing fit, followed by this weird sensation of my sides splintering. We have confirmed broken ribs. I should maybe play bingo with my body parts, but at this point I'll be playing with the ones which aren't fucked.

"My lady...I think we may find few complaints considering how much betrayal, murder and general bad form this boy got up to." quipped Apollo. "Nonetheless, he is an excellent poster boy for bad morality. We should indeed avoid his level. "

"No eccentricities today? Jokes about Ipods or maybe about your favorite YouTube channels?" I asked. "Guess I at least got you serious." I coughed, and some more blood fell on the floor.

"Indeed you have. Perseus Jackson, you are hereby charged with betraying the gods, fully intending to doom all humanity and other, numerous charges, each carrying the death penalty and the extensive pleasure of Hades's servants." stated Zeus, gazing down at me from his throne." Only your status as son of Poseidon has saved you from instant death. More out of curiosity than anything else, we wish to know...why? Do you have any defense for your despicable actions?"

I didn't really want to speak, because I knew more blood would come out and I sure as hell wasn't getting a sympathy pardon. "Well, I guess its just that I really really really REALLY hate all of you. You're all shit at being gods and none of you deserve to be here. But all you actually have to take away from all this is the whole me hating you thing. That's really what this is all about." I began sarcastically, warming up my audience for the really cutting remarks. And I fell forwards, basically vomiting blood and other things unto the floor. Hello what appears to be...or should it be have been my kidney?

"Perhaps you should have healed him before this." noted Dionysus, looking at Apollo.

"Come on, we're already not allowed to torture him. And this must be self inflicted. He was fine when I checked up on him. He probably attempted suicide to avoid part of his fate." answered Apollo, looking almost worried. "But this is a bit much...he really must have messed up his insides. Did any of you do anything?"

"No one saw him after Athena's visit." stated Hera. "The boy must have done this whilst thrashing against his chains."

"You know, I'm still kind of unsure of how you know I'm against you...how can you be sure my antics weren't just zany?" I asked, flawlessly breaking the flow of boring conversation.

"You fought against us. The natural order. Against divine is all we need to know." declared Zeus coldly.

"Not too often though. The case can easily be made that he annoyed Oranos far more than he did us." responded Poseidon softly.

"Woah...nice unbiased opinion there..." spat Mr.D. "It's almost like you have some sort of reason to want him alive..."

"I'm afraid Lord Poseidon is right." said Athena. "Whilst I have no doubt that he must die for his crimes, he has indeed helped us far more than he has Oranos. However, he also prevented us from ending this war earlier and it certainly would have gone far better for us if he stayed on our side from the beginning."

"Bah." responded Ares. "The boy wanted the war drawn out, so he fought on both sides. Simple as that. Did it myself back in the European ages. Probably convinced himself he could draw the war out forever."

"True...he is a monster who loves blood." stated Artemis calmly. "I don't think he can see past that, except to think up those one liners he thinks are funny."

Zeus grimaced, probably at the memory of some of my better ones. "Do you have any final words?"

"Yeah...did any of you respond to my facebook friend requests yet? I really wanted to poke a few of you." I said staring suggestively at Artemis. "And hey...we just skipped the verdict! How am I supposed to know if I'm guilty or not?"

"I can't wait to see you again in the afterlife." said Artemis coldly.

"Wait wait. He fought a war on the losing side. That means firsties go to me." interjected Ares snidely.

"I believe that the boy has offended me the most...therefore, I shall have him first." replied Hades, coldly glaring at Ares.

"Well, I guess variety is the spice of eternal damnation." I commented. All of them turned to stare at me again. It was beyond cold. The lack of comprehension had surpassed the rage, and they were beginning to feel the kind of unease that leads to fear. They could deal with deep, pithy remarks. They could deal with the kind of speech that gets a man word drunk enough to fist fuck a bear. They've heard it all before, and better, by men and women who love justice, truth and all that shit and were more than willing to die for the right reasons. They were basically begging me to give them my reason for doing this. Like it was some sort of Christmas present and they were all five year olds.

I looked up. "Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it divine to forgive?"

Zeus smiled thinly, and a lightning bolt appeared in his hands. "Your suffering in the world of the living is over. But your suffering for eternity is just beginning. "

"Resuming actually." I pointed out, nodding at Hades. And then I stood up, causing Apollo and Athena to gasp but the rest didn't really get how odd it was for someone in my condition to stand. "You wanted a ...why right? Why I'm not afraid, why I'm doing this, why anyone can believe they can beat the gods? You wanted those why's right?" I laughed, and noticed they weren't interrupting.

Show time.

"Well, I've spent my whole life on what appeared to be neither side of a gods vs titans battle. And the thing is, I get that our morality and your morality simply cannot be the same. Us calling you evil is like the ground being angry at the boots which step on it. And really, you can't help what you are because you can't change what you are. You're immutable ideas, and I couldn't think of any smart way in which you can change. So killing you all really was my only option." I paused, to let some more blood come out. "That includes Oranos and all the rest. I never switched between sides. I was always on one side. The right one."

Dramatic pause, more induced by me puking blood than anything else. But it still got the effect a pro speech maker would want.

"But the most fucked up thing is, you're so much more fucking scared than us. I think we've accepted death...and there are certain things we won't do to avoid it. But you'll do anything to avoid your destruction. That's why you get to treat us like dirt and then heroes when you're about to be ended. We're your playthings. You're just...giant hands...moving us around." I coughed up some more blood. "And one day, in that cell...I realized I didn't want to be played with anymore. That's why these happen. You shouldn't call us people when to you, we clearly aren't. You shouldn't let us live in this world, pretending that there is some divine purpose when their isn't...there's just fighting and dying for you."

They were silent.

"This is where my flame goes out right? Where everything goes back to normal and you pretend I was just a footnote instead of the fucking book. This is the part where the deep wise cunts with hollow souls get proven right and the sex starved wine slurping fucks disguising pain for passion feel all tingly and think that sharp, stabbing feeling is the only way to see beauty...that suffering they-"

"You're suffering shall be delicious and varied. You will truly know torment young Jackson." said Hades softly, cutting me off. Figured he'd get annoyed first.

"Bad choice of words...things like...like you, don't know what pain is. Really is. You don't know what right or wrong is. You were placed on a pedestal by a bunch of scared people a few thousand years ago because you could make some shiny lights and bend some dumb laws and you thought that made you special and right and better. But what they didn't get is...that...divinity, doesn't supersede morality and that...that..." I grinned now, feeling a relief spread over my body. "That we were better than you."

And I was grinning, hitting the mark at last, finding their one weakness, the so called godliness that distinguished them from titans being called a lie. Humans made the lie. We wanted to believe. So badly, so so badly do we want to believe.

"You know...the other thing...I would have died anyway. Lets not even pretend here. Remember Archanae? She challenged you to a sewing competition right?" I asked Athena. "She won...despite whatever you could say, she won and she knew she was better than you..."

I coughed some more, blood flowing freely from my mouth. Luckily it didn't seem to be chocking me yet.

"She won...and you still didn't understand. That's why...I am. I will...make you...understand..." I fell to the ground again, slipping on my own blood and guts as I tried to get back up.

The final spurt off blood, and I grinned. All this time, they hadn't realized it was red...tinted with gold.

"Your eye..." said Zeus suddenly, and I was almost done. My organs had been replaced and melted and puked out. I wasn't repaired. Most of this body wasn't me any more. Another wave of pain, possibly the last I would ever feel, my skin peeled off, and the red and black skin underneath was revealed.

I grinned at Hades, Demeter, Hera, Zeus, Poseidon and said the thing they feared more than anything.

"Daddy's home."

**Authors Notes:**

**Fuck yeah. **

**Just that.**

**Final Chapter: Changing The Game**


	18. Changing the Game

**Brothers By Rage**

**Changing the Game**

I know,I know, if this was going to go wrong, I was going to be so fucked for the rest of forever.

But the looks on the faces of the gods made it all so so so worth it. Sometimes you make a completely retarded trade like that. But someone has to piss in the firestorm. Someone has to ram his dick into the star and try to fuck it for humanity.

Kronos swag...dear lord we looked good. Mismatching eyes though. One was still mine, allowing me to see and narrate what should be the final scene. The rest was a mixture of swirling black and red energy pouring out of my battered and torn body, wings of light forming behind me, and twisting back in on themselves. Basically, we were the mother fucking angel of death after a few shots of caramel vodka.

"So, ladies and gentleman, we have a very large conundrum. There is a huge titan army outside the borders of New York... and sure, if the battle was to happen, you might win. Eventually, after every favour you have ever been owed is cashed in and every resentful ally you've ever has had to evaluate if they really want you around for forever. But if I sided with them...then the scales, which were in your favour...would tip." said Kronos, grinning at each of the gods and goddesses in turn, dripping insolence, basically sweating out defiance. Cocksure as fuck. The swag meter has never read higher and was in danger of breaking.

They were still stunned into silence. The play was unfurling and getting fucked from all sides, the audience was being covered in pig's blood the curtains were being changed into outfits to let us crossdress this entire fucking thing was worth it. Worth it...so fucking worth it.

"You see, I have not had the best few millenia. In fact, they've been downright lousy. What with the constant bleeding and ripping and twisting and breaking. Well, you could say it's a fate no normal mind could contemplate surviving and whatever separates us from humans is also what keeps me sane..." Kronos grinned. "Or kept me sane..." Backbiter, which for some reason turned back into a scythe was in his left hand again and he was swinging it around gleefully, enjoying having a proper body again. He looked noble somehow, dancing on the precipice , in his element , so very him.

"So...the boy has been serving you all this time." stated Hades softly.

"The boy as you call him has been the greatest champion I've ever had. But he also saddened me...you see, what happens if a thousand voices keep yelling random words? Well, eventually they will stumble upon a few truths. The source is irrelevant, truth remains." Kronos laughed again, and for once I felt I might not come last in the sanity contest in the room.

"So...this boy has taught you something?" asked Athena. "Despite your...point...I doubt even you are insane enough to take anything he says seriously."

"Oh dear me...you really are incapable of learning anything...well, the thing is, me and him bonded. We have become close. Don't have much in common but we still formed a fucking club of two. A secret club, no gods allowed. And... I had this plan. A nice one. Basically, it would have ended with Typhon smashing through Oranos army, then all of you and I would march in here and claim whatever wasn't in a thousand pieces as my own, giggling slightly as the titans sided with me again."

Kronos stood forward, and the chains fell loosely from his body. They were made to hold a half blood not a...whatever the fuck we were. He picked up the chains and swung them around idly. "So...thoughts? Interjections, admiring phrases or questions or are you all following? "

"I believe this explains a lot." replied Hades softly, seemingly the only one who had recovered from the plot twist. "What it doesn't explain is what you're planning to do now."

"And more importantly, why it's beginning to sound like you want to ally yourself with us or make some sort of deal." added Zeus grimly.

"Same reason you aren't attacking me right now." answered Kronos, grinning like a child and still playing with Backbiter and his chains. "You don't know what the fuck is going to happen next. Attack me...win, but get pretty fucked up and Oranos just has to march in as we give him a light show that covers all Olympus and hints that things aren't going well here... or your second option..."

He laughed full out, and twisted more, fully freeing himself from the chains.

"You see, what we can do...is let me have..." Kronos grinned, strolling to right in front of the big three. Like a python he struck out, the chains wrapping around Hades, Poseidon and Zeus.

And off they went to never never land.

xxx

A massive explosion filled the room as the three empty thrones crashed and imploded, their patrons seemingly gone. There was chaos as the gods started screaming, panicking, Athena desperately trying to force order back into the room, staring as a swirl of golden blood appeared and disappeared.

Ares was up in arms, yelling, apparently ready to fight everything, Apollo had jumped up and started using his divine methods to see whether the Titans had capitalised yet, no one knew what had happened, no one understood.

Showtime.

Prometheues came strutting into the room.

"I think you have a problem." he said softly, indicating the broken thrones. "A few key positions suddenly have vacancies."

Athena flew from her seat. "This is not the time for idle threats traitor! Our father has just been slain by...by..."

"We can figure shit out later." interrupted Ares. "Right now, we have suddenly lost our most powerful leaders while the enemy army is sitting a few miles away! I'm not sure what the exact military phrasing is for this situation, but it is what comes right before FUBAR."

"But he was talking so calmly...one second he was bargaining, the next...just over." whispered Apollo softly.

"Quite brother." scolded Artemis. "Ares is right. We can avenge and save our father later. For now, we have to focus on what will happen if Oranos finds out what happened here."

"Well, it's obvious what will happen isn't it? He'll merrily march in here, take over the realms of the dead, the sky, the ocean and sweep over you like an almighty wave before sitting on this throne like it's been his for all ages and shall remain so for ever more." said Prometheues, grinning at them all.

There was yelling, panic, utter confusion...a plethora of new emotions which the gods have always told themselves they were above, and were now experiencing from all sides.

"Silence!" screamed Athena. "We are not defeated yet! In our final -

"I have a...solution for you." interjected Prometeheus sweetly.

As one the gods turned to stare at him.

"Let me begin by saying, I am a simple ...titan. I want one thing...and that's not to be stuck to a rock again. Actually, I really just want to not be tortured and have my fucking freedom. Now, I am also a straight shooter. I want Tartarus. I want the realms of the dead. I want ultimate freedom there to do what I want."

The gods stood dumbstruck on the precipice, as Prometheues added his own flair to Kronos's long written speech.

"Make me the god of the dead. Give me Hades's kingdom...I will act as steward of the lands until he is ready to retake them. Athena can rule the skies and Apollo the seas...some minor gods can be temporarily elevated to fill the gaps...and bamn...we stand a chance."

"Why...would you do this?" asked Athena with narrowed eyes. "You always side with the side most likely to win. Yet, the only reason we have to side with you, is that we will automatically lose otherwise."

"Well, I used to always side with the winners. But winning usually involves being curb stomped by an eagle. So what it comes down to is the gamblers principle...higher risk equals higher potential reward. And fuck it...foresight is the ability to completely overlook what is likely to happen and staring only at that fucking delicious million to one chance..."

He wasn't looking above them. He was looking through them.

"I am guided now, not by what is likely,not by what is right...but by what I really...really...want. You can make of that what you will. But if you wish to survive...you will have...to reorganise yourself and prepare yourselves for the greatest fight you've ever had..."

He smiled at Athena, looking deep into her as she paled, and the rest of the gods started moving around uncomfortably.

"You have to play to win, or you might as well give up now. And this is the only way we...can...win."

xxx

Okay..where the fuck am I now?

I'm supposed to have gone to Erebus right? Or does Hades's...ending...has it fucked up the natural process?

This is exactly why deranged beings shouldn't fuck with the natural processes.

"Not really..." said the guy who was suddenly, and always had been, sitting across from me. "Humans and gods are passing on and to and back as they must. You however...you have done something new."

"Well okay strange person. Your insights are appreciated. I would show my appreciation but I don't seem to currently have my swords..."

Wait...who the fuck was that? Well, sure the words came from my mouth but...like, not from brain to mouth but...ah god damn it...

"You see Percy, you are not really yourself." said the man calmly, and I'm guessing he could read my thoughts.

"Indeed you're not." agreed Kronos, who was also here now, smiling and being...calm? Is that the word? I wanted serene...or...dammit...what's wrong with me?

"You're becoming yourself again." stated the man. "You see Percy, you and Kronos...your essence has mixed to an extent I could not predict. Your very souls became twisted into a single, entity...an entity which does not seem to follow the usual life after death rules. So I brought you here, and now I will split you back."

"Cool story bro." I replied, not really interested. Or something else. Something I hadn't felt in forever. Panic, fear...insecurity. Regret...wait...i regret nothing right? That's how I keep going? Kept going?

"Oh fuck..." I spat out suddenly. "What the fuck have I been doing?" I was getting flashes from all over, seeing things I've done, people I've ripped apart,the plan...oh god...why did I try to execute that god damn plan?

"You were alone in the dark." whispered Kronos. "You would have spent eternity there otherwise...in a way you already have. Can we be blamed? For doing bad things to people who did far worse things to us? Can you not accept that to become evil to destroy a greater evil is in fact...good?"

My vision was getting blurred...and I felt pain. All kinds of wrong pain. Like my body was warping and spitting out parts and reforming old ones. And then it stopped and I twisted back.

"Ever the manipulator..." noted the man, shaking his head sadly.

"And you are the proud owner of the world's most remote ivory tower." responded Kronos coldly. "You don't live Kaos. Even less than the gods, you don't live, you don't suffer and you have no right to judge those who do. I have sinned but I have suffered a thousand fold for every single one, don't you dare..." Kronos paused. "Mmmm...I used to be able to control myself better. He is also in me?"

"Yes...you have become one. And you're reforming as fast as I can take you apart. Why is that?" asked Kaos softly, and there was an edge to his voice.

"Well..." I stated, and I was the previous me again. "We have a plan see, and currently, it's kinda fucked. See, I was supposed to be resurrected by Prometheues, claim to have been mind fucked by Kronos and then rally Luke and the other half bloods, crush Oranos and get partially redeemed. Then go on with life like nothing happened."

"And you?" Kaos asked Kronos.

"I was supposed to end. To be nothing. My essence should have held my sons for long enough while Prometheues pulls off the final scene, and then become nothing. Or maybe become part of everything again. Like I was before you made us. But now I'm here..." said Kronos. "I don't want to be any more Kaos. I want to end. I've been in the darkness so long that the light can only burn me. I don't want to rule, I only wanted to end. I don't want this, anything any more I don't want please, just please, let me end..."

"You also wanted vengeance." replied Kaos. "You wanted what the boy wanted...and now, your very essence is split...part of it wants nothing more than to lapse into nothing, the other part keeps lapsing into this boy who promises it vengeance and rage and life. Part of it is clinging to him for existence."

Kaos smiled at Kronos like he was a kindergarten teacher telling a kid he can't breed the rabbit with the hamster. With the same god damn smile he turned to face me.

"You have to choose...be a monster, or be a hero. You can try to live with the things you have done and repent for them or you can choose the easy way...in which you keep your insanity, your cruelty...in which you stay a titan in human form. In which you remain this...but for it to work after Kronos is gone...your will is going to have to keep the parts attached. You essence must accept and nurture what remains of his."

"You mean...I won't...feel like I feel now?" I said, standing up. I had fallen to the ground to puke during Kaos's monologue, after some more of the memories game flooding back. Dear lord I was good at dismemberment...and flesh...like, it doesn't always tear off so there are those red strands desperately pulling to keep everything I cut together...

"You will be a monster. In a way, Kronos will live on, possibly reforming on the day of your death. Or maybe you will become a new god in truth...something terrifying. A god who can change, who knows death."

This...

This...

Is stupid. See, we all live this lie, that actions have reactions. Science tries to explain everything away, but unfortunately, I have been exposed to too many things which fuck science up the butt. I have seen to many things which just make sense so we can have a story, someone has been blocking every loophole and every simple ending...someone has been directing...

"I know what you are." I said with finality. "You are...the reason for all this. The real reason. For those dumb Ancient Laws which force a story...you...don't know what we are and whether or not we change the game...whether or not we'll switch off the tv channel which is reality, which only exists for your fucking amusement."

"Maybe." replied Kaos. "I prefer to think of reality as a story...I am the teller. I don't change the story, I change how it is told."

"Simple...you want to be entertained? You want humanity and twists. Watching the titans kill and murder as they please is probably about as entertaining as static. So...you can separate us and let the gods lose...or you can...let whatever would have happened if you didn't interfere...happen. And then me and Kronos...the single being me and Kronos...can go back to changing the game."

"We were in Tartarus when you ripped us out." stated Kronos calmly. "My preparations should hold those three down there for a day, but after that..."

"Athena has taken her father's throne." said Kaos. "Prometheues has been given stewardship of the realms of the dead until a suitable replacement can be found."

"They are confused and scared and flatfooted as fuck." I laughed, suddenly twisting inside, somehow switching between the current me and wanting to puke whenever I returned to being the old me. "We can...do this. Kaos, you ripped us out of the story because you were scared we would fuck it up...that we would break the ancient laws. But you have to understand...we're not story enders. We're not an epilogue. We're a fucking cliffhanger! We're game changers incorporated and our stock is at an all time high! You have been watching repeats of repeats for fucking centuries and you know you want us to shake things up. Luke thought this was all a play right? Well you're the director then but you're also the audience."

"And we are about to make a cameo which will blow you the fuck away." added Kronos, fading slightly, as my body did the same. We were mixing again, our essences merging and healing the other's broken parts...no wonder Kaos was confused. The Ancient Laws sure as fuck didn't cover this. Nothing covered this.

Grinning, I took a pen out of my...our pocket and started laughing, only to be rudely interrupted by myself.

"We fight with a scythe. No arguments." I said suddenly and Backbiter appeared in our outstretched left hand, back in Scythe form. It was black wood, ash, Kronos assumed me politely, smoothly polished, the Scythe shown and sparkled despite the lack of light.

"Lets just see what happens." I replied, pocketing Riptide with a wry grin.

"You...two...or rather one...you think I should let you go back?" Kaos whispered softly.

"Don't know bout should. But I'm fucking sure you want to...and when you're above even the gods...isn't want finally more important than should?"

xxx

"Oh fuck yes." I said, inhaling deeply, my lungs feeling fucking fantastic. Note: You would notice it as well if they had been punctured, collapsed and repaired recently.

"So we're actually doing this...it's really happening." I quipped happily, spinning the scythe ,starting at the place Kaos had sent us to, which appeared to be a short way away from Oranos's camp.

"Hell yeah it is. We're going to go with the simplest plan ever...search and destroy. And then mock the pieces of whatever we destroy. Before and after. Also during."

I'm beginning to note that the I we thing we got going on makes as sound like a drunk hipster girl who just recovered from a pregnancy scare.

"We suck with metaphors. And analogies." I commented wistfully.

"On well...we swag into the vanguard, kill those cunts, one shot some flunkies, and then go get some. Ready for this brah?"

"You know it! Time to go yeah yeah yeah max swagger mode!"

"Shit...we sound like we're on cocaine on something." During our one man dialogue which consisted of insane ramblings and random words we had actually managed to get into the back of Oranos camp. Some tall guy was greeting random...things and directing them to different places on the battlefield. However, the stream of things stuff dried up mysteriously when I started swinging my scythe at it.

"Oooooooo who's this guy?" I asked happily after we jumped the queue. Or should that be decapitated the queue? We did jump them while decapitating them but...sigh. Language. It's just so not ready for me.

"That's Atlas...former general of the titan army, currently regulated to general pointing where people should go. He is what is known as a "warm up" kill."

As you can see, my initiating of conversation has become even more flawless.

"Why hello there Atlas! I love it! I am actually going to create a paradox and fucking murder you!" I continued, just to go from 10 out of 10 to 11 out of 10.

"Oh wait...you're the insane one right?" Atlas asked me stoically. "Well boy, you should know how the Ancient Laws work. If you challenge me to a fight, I can use my full power on you-

"Yeah! The prospect fucking excites me you brain dead pissed filled cunt! I am literally going to rip apart every organ you need and several you don't and then just pummel you with the blunt end of the scythe! Scared yet?"

"May I enquire as to why I should fear someone foolish enough to take on an army on his own?"

"Oh we go solo cause yolo my brolo! It's how we rolo!" The I we responded.

"The tales of your lack of sanity have actually understated the situation...which is an achievement in itself but-"

The astute observer would have noticed that he stopped talking since he just took a scythe to the fucking face. Apparently 90% of public speakers fear this happening to them. The other 10% just don't have common sense.

He started fighting, yelling, using his powers, and then screaming, begging, pleading when it turned out we just didn't give a fuck. And also that our powers were way more gangster and we actually knew how to fight.

"So...not only did we kill..." Huh...already forgot his name. "That guy, but we've also disrupted the flow of troops...we really do deserve the name game changers...Atlas was gurgling in a mildly threatening way, but I wasn't about to let time change my sentence structures.

"We need jackets with bitching logo's on them. Maybe game changers Inc. set behind a demonic looking chess piece which is transforming from pawn to queen..."

"Just a jacket really. There's only one of us..."

"What about Prometheues?"

"Not the jacket type. Either goes super formal or super casual, never inbetween, always at the extremes."

"I am not finished yet..." spat out Atlas, through a wave of teeth and Ichor.

"Hey! Can't you see I am talking to myself!" I yelled, and the fight continued, even more one sidedly than before.

xxx

"Well I can't decide which is more fun...killing my brothers and sisters, or killing my children." I pondered, wisely as fuck, now getting down to my fifth titanly kill of the night.

"I'm thinking we should leave that to the philosopher gods. The ones we didn't kill."

Ooooooo...mental check. Pretty sure we dealt with all of them. And that philosopher gods is an oxymoron.

"I think we're starting to bleed out of the eyes. And ears. Blood just doesn't want to stay inside."

"Not the mouth though. Your non stop taunting and spewing of insults may be evaporating it." interrupted an annoying voice. Rude. Churlish. Uncouth.

"I AM LITERALLY GOING TO BREAK YOU SO HARD THE ONLY PARTS OF YOU LEFT WILL BE ON THE ASTRAL PLANE. I WILL RAPE YOU INTO SO MANY DIMENSIONS YOU WILL FUCKING PROVE STRING THEORY."

Hmmm...where did that come from? It was sciency, violency...nice. I like that style. Gonna mix it up for as long as I can.

"You have no idea what you just said do you?" asked...fuck. Kronos part of us, who the shit are we talking to?

Prometheues brother. The walking personification of the difference between the exceptional and the merely passable.

"Well bro...if you want a rephrasing...I am going to beat you worse than an alcoholic stepfather and giggle frequently whilst doing so."

"Charming. I am most distressed to tell you that I have been given the task of putting down the mongrel before he does even more harm. The mongrel in this case is you."

"So you're the type that tends to ignore the past and focus on the future..." I smiled, pointing at what little remained of the other things which tried to fight me. "They thought the same way. In case you have been ignoring the rest of reality as well, let me just point out...they dead now. Or just spitting blood and piss in general, but I am pretty sure they would rather be dead."

"Indeed they are...but...I...have a better idea of what you really are. They fought you like you were a titan possessing a human. I have realised that it is the other way around."

We laughed aloud at that. He was getting some of it, but he wasn't getting that he wasn't getting the most of it...and he was pretty much missing most of the important bits.

"Bitch, you don't understand our synergy. At the same time we fight like someone who doesn't want to live and someone who refuses to die. I'm the worst kind of human and the worst kind of titan and somehow...I'm finding salvation in that damnation. This was just revenge and vengeance and a bunch of pissed off feelings...now it's about a fucking point that just has to be made. Nothing should be safe...sacred...static. The very concept of divinity is fucked from the bottom of tartarus to the heights of olympus, and I am going to fucking slaughter, maim and just plain fuck vivisect everything which claims that title until it changes."

"Cute. Sword and scythe now." said Kronos me, finally giving in to my gangster style and letting me draw my sword. Scythe in one hand, Riptide in the other.

"To the end then." he responded with a theatrical bow. "May I have the name you are currently using, oh exalted one?"

"Fuck you. It's more of a motto than a name, but really, it's what I think this world should know me as."

xxx

A hand shot like lightning and grabbed several whiskers. Sensitive whiskers, judging by the furious roar.

Sven's belt had been outfitted with several Stygian iron spikes and flew through the air, swotting down several flying things which wanted Luke's tender flesh.

A stray spike was effortlessly dodged, a screaming camper( minus and eye and half an arm) was saved as Luke's sword entered the throat which was currently digesting said half-an-arm.

Another camper exploded by the force of a gaint club smashing into the him which became and it. The shards of armours flew out, slicing across Luke's feet, costing him two toes.

He stared up at the giant and ducked under the first swing of it's club.

Challenge.

He fucking loved those.

xxx

Athena and Oranos started their epic stare down. Both conspiring to look like they were so in the right that they can't make left turns, that the other ones very existence is an insult to the very concept of justice.

"You know, you really did ruin my battle-cry. I planned to call Zeus what he was, the usurper of my usurper...but adding another usurper in their just makes it lose all pith." stated Oranos , glaring down at Athena from his fractional height advantage. "You are the goddess of wisdom and battle...or were in any case...so I assume you do realise you can no longer win?"

"Also of honour." replied Athena. "And I will die a thousand fold before I let one such as you walk on Olympus."

"You stood tall and mighty Lady Athena." said Oranos, catching the light, setting the stage. " But I am eldest and have most right to rule. The greatest age of this world starts -"

"Now." grinned Prometheues, his spear protruding through Oranos's neck.

The entire battlefield stood still as Prometheues cleared his throat and smiled a massive shit eating grin, his right hand loosening it's grip and his left pushing the hair out of his eyes.

"Well my lord...my ladies...there is one more thing to consider...and it is..."

He pointed at the mass of monsters and lesser gods surrounding Olympus as the skies lit up with planes throwing grenades which launched Stygian iron between them.

"That..."

The ground underneath the mighty titans suddenly exploded, taking their balance. Ares and Artemis, sensing their fear and insecurity charged in, fighting, bleeding, winning...

"Just..."

A scythe flew through the area with no one swinging it, slaying a titans who had charged the wounded Dionysus, with a mighty yell Athena and Apollo threw themselves at the titans, the minor gods, fearing defeat ran and already started to plan their lies as to whom they served...

"Happened."

"You...you always betray...even now.." Oranos whispered out at his son. For the first time, Kronos was usurped as his most hated son.

"No old fool. I was always on the same side. The side which wins." Prometheues whispered into his ears. He took out a dagger which, ironically, was forged in the sun itself before fire's secrets ever came down to the earth. Metaphorically of course.

But both metaphorically and literally...

That just happened.

xxx

"Fuck yeah cartilage!" I yelled as something exploded in guts and more guts around me.

"You know brah...there really should be more limits. Cause we have been going through the existing ones pretty fast." I quipped, mostly to freak out the shockingly still standing things which, as I have stated , we still standing and screaming.

"If you can break them...they are not really limits...limits are things which are always running away from us...we must just always be willing to chase. That's what makes it...delicious."

"Stop pretending to be deep brah...you'll pretend to drown." I retorted to myself as I ripped out some...guess it was a cockatrice's spine.

"Not if I pretend to wear pool floaties..." came the swift reply, almost as swiftly as the scythe went through the...fucking wisp's body.

"Oh dear...it appears the trump cards have been played...Prometheus has seemingly shown his fake true colours..."

It's a good thing the universe in general had given up trying to understand what I/me/we were saying at any particular time, or it would give the game away completely.

I smiled at the minor gods who, up to a a few seconds ago, we serving the titan lord. "Welcome to loserville...we have eagles."

And they ran.

Or flew. Whatever.

xxx

"And now...bring Jackson back Lord Prometheues. He must answer for this." said Athena, sitting on her new throne, calm and fury fighting for dominance of her face.

"Gladly." answered Prometehues, and phased into the darkness. He returned, looking panicked. "It appears the boy didn't die. I can only assume that Kronos as Lord of time pulled something off...

"He is still alive then?" asked Athena coldly, gripping her composure like recently oiled soap.

"Yes...but he is most likely currently maimed. He was most likely completely controlled by Kronos and when he left..."

"Very well then...we now reach the matter of our missing father and uncles..." said Athena softly, glancing around the rest of the room, where everybody was already looking...comfortable with their new roles.

"My lady...perhaps, in time...after their essence has reformed, we could attempt to..." began Apollo.

"No" breathed Athena heavily. "I have had enough, suffered enough, done enough. Too long have I cleaned up after my father and his constant mistakes. For too long has my council been scorned and ignored and foolishness used in it's place...I rule now, and I shall not be repeating my fathers mistakes."

"If...our father does return, the matter can be reopened, and perhaps he might one day be the lord of the sky again...but for now...we cannot risk our recently regained realms to find them."

Everyone nodded sagely. There was a careful aura of "no one better state the fucking obvious". When you remove the very top, in general, everyone else can move up a bit. And when you have several thousand years of you enjoying the priviledges of being on top in the most dickish way imaginable...well

"And about Jackson my lady..." added Prometeues, when the two of them were alone.

"He is a fool and sows dissension with reckless abandon. As volatile as things are now, his mere presence might come close to destroying the entire world...again. Open the gates of hell for him Prometheues. Have every monster still loyal chase him until he can be brought down and murdered like the dog he is. He is maimed...no longer possessed...and doubtlessly his mind will not have recovered fully from the dark lords scarring. He will soon fall."

Prometheues bowed theatrically and walked out, only allowing a ghost of a smile to cross his features when he knew he was alone.

Even great wisdom can fail when it does not distinguish correctly between truth and lies.

Percy Jackson is maimed.

True.

Percy Jackson is insane.

True.

Percy Jackson is no longer possessed by a titan.

Possibly true.

Percy Jackson is no longer a monster slaying machine.

Lie.

xxx

"We're waiting for the final review...but I'm guessing 9 thumbs up?" We stated, grinning at Kaos, swinging the scythe with our left hand while licking Riptide gently. Holy fuck I am playing to an invisible audience which is probably me as well.

"You really are too impressionable. Too easily changed. You are the personification of every bad decision this world has ever made, suppressing your nature under the worst type of smile."

You know, sometimes I wonder how words and meanings really are related. Like...use X words, but Y people get H meanings and then shit's just fucked. The whole point of poetry seems to be for pissed off people to assign meanings to random things they see in it and then make the poet seem deep.

"Regardless...you have a choice...it's a simple one. You can completely purge the titan lord from your body...or you can let the parts of him which still wish to exist continue to cling to you. A possible parasitic growth, which will feed off of your fear, your regret, your hate, every bad feelings you can have and leave you empty of any deeper growth or meaning. But you will feel no pain, physical...emotional...or spiritual. "

"In short, you will stay as you have been...or turn back into the boy who defied the lord of...previous lord of death with no hesitation...turn back into the hero this world needs..."

"You have been staring into the abyss for so long that it is all you can see...as you are now, you are closer to any monster than human or titan. You are like a god in that sense...you have lost all connection to humanity...and have gained nothing from it. Only distance. Only apathy. Only emptiness."

"So I choose..." I whispered and Kronos was standing across from me, completely out of me. The picture phased out, and everything was edges and heat, not making sense, like I was drunk and completely dehydrated.

"Prometheues...please..." said Kronos, turning from and looking to his brother in way I could not interpret. "You know what I want to do...and you might..." He paused. "I can't be whom you need me to be. I am...limited. I have seen my limits, chased them, and lost part of my...divinity or whatever we have...when I was all too human."

Prometheus face was taunt. He looked...wistful. Sad. Messed up? He grinned at Kronos while twirling a dagger around in his fingers.

"You know...I heard a description of humanity as where the falling angel meets the raising ape..." He seemed to consider something. "Then I started hearing about demons...the angels who wanted to be more than perfect. You know, sometimes I wonder Kaos...what is..." He stopped. "It is unimportant. Old friend...you promised me eventually you would give me a world I could mould and shape and take all the pain away and create beauty and passion and...that I would not have to look at fucking one dimensional divinity for eternity...you have given me that...but I had always assumed we would rule together. I would be the god, you would be the devil. That would be the balance. That would be the..."

"No." said Kronos with finality. "Adding two opposites does not give balance. We are not numbers. You want balance, it must come from one. If you wish to have the world you want, you will have to be...everything."

"I can't be everything...one absolute ruler does not work, we both know that. We need an equal an opposite force, always reigning over humanity...you are the final moment, the twist...you can't tell me you are done playing this game of thrones with me..."

"I want to be done with everything." responded Kronos softly.

"You want something...even if it is to want nothing, that is desire..."

"Quit it with the Buddhism bullshit." replied Kronos and for the first time he looked angry. "You always look too deep, take good ideas to far and then you don't..."

Prometeheus grinned insolently. "Someone is feeling anger...someone is feeling..."

"Umm...shouldn't we interrupt this?" I asked , noticing that Kaos was enthralled at what must be a "new" conversation.

"You both need to choose..." said Kaos. "And I can't wait to see what you do choose..."

xxx

Luke sat alone in the dining area. Other campers were walking around and chatting, smiling, enjoying life. The major gods had changed, the entire world had almost ended and yet...yet...it's like everything goes back to normal as soon as the yelling stops. Some tears were shed, some curses were thrown but...normal. Some people were missed, some "traitors" were pardoned and sort of shunned but...normal. Sure, Annabeth was now the new main child of the hour as head of the Athena cabin, and Thalia had noticed the sky was forgetting her. But normal.

"You're back." said Luke.

"Never left." Replied a grinning Percy Jackson flicking the fingers of his only hand. "Apparently, me having been completely mindfucked by Kronos is not enough for them to fully forgive me. Something about one liners, arrogance, swag...and my face. They really do hate my face. I asked Apollo for an eye though...my depth perception is beyond fucked."

Percy sat down next to Luke and kept grinning ,winking over the empty socket. "You can't have everything, even if the gods can easily give it. Sometimes, you just have to take solace from the fact that you still being alive is the biggest fuck you in the history of ever."

Luke stared at him. "Don't you...you're not even mad are you? You just realised how much bullshit they are, that we haven't really changed anything and yet..."

Percy paused and stared into the sky.

"You know...I was part of Kronos for the longest time. Parts of him started flowing into me, twisting me, turning me into...well...an antisocial god slaying monster killing one liner delivering machine. But it didn't really add anything...I learned some new words and I was smarter, but I had no new...fuck, I need Kronos's vocabulary for this."

Percy paused, and for the first time the grin disappeared. "Look, Luke, you got the really bad parts. Sure, I got some shit and I'm handicapable as fuck now, but I never had to live with the angst, the regret, the emotional self torture...you did. Funnily, despite not having a single lasting wound from that shit...you're the one who really got scarred by that war."

"Percy, why are you so fucking calm can't you..."

"Shhhh shhhh young one. Serenity is coming. What you have to realise, is...why I am so calm. Why I am not joining you in an epic march on Olympus to pluck those fuckers from their thrones..."

Percy looked at Luke with a smile which Luke couldn't place. It was...wise? Calm? Happy? Satisfied? It was...

"I can't hate the gods. I can only pity them. Rage that they exist, but not rage against them. They are basically fucking plays...they might exist but they have way more in common with fictional characters than with anything that lives. You can't be mad at something like that, something that can't change. It's literally, like being pissed at the fucking sky for being blue."

Percy paused for the moment, and chuckled.

"Sky don't live. Sky just is."

"That sounds too simple..." replied Luke.

"That's why it's harder to understand and accept."

The wind kicked up leaves and one wind into Percy's socket, where he appeared to not notice it.

"They're going to be sending monsters at you?" asked Luke after a long silence.

"They're going to be sending a lot of things after me." smiled Percy. "It's going to get fun again. My inclination towards violence and really really really violent combat hasn't been lost and will hopefully see my through this difficult time. Bout that though...I do need some practise fighting with one hand and eye. So take it easy on me till I adapt a bit..."

They began sparring. They fought for hours, until their hands bled and they felt physical pain above everything else. It still didn't distract enough.

"So...where do we go now?" asked Luke, as they collapsed unto the benches, cracking open two beers.

"Forwards, at a slight angle. Basically, we stay in a circle." responded Percy, who downed his first and cracked open a second.

"What I don't get is...what was Kronos's plan? What was supposed to happen? Because Athena going full divine can't be it."

"He lost the will to exist..." began Percy hesitantly, almost adding the wrong words. "He doesn't want anything anymore...the part that kept him from fading away...which forced him to keep...being I guess...was his thirst for vengeance. As long as he raged at them...as long as he felt...he would exist. Only when his desire to exact vengeance on them was sated...could he disappear. That's how a God dies...when they lose all desire, all hope, all feeling...all will. They are concepts. The end when they run out of them."

Luke sighed. "Well, I guess the fucker didn't have a plan for doing it to all the other gods as well right?"

Percy's eyes glinted. "Not per se...you can't do something like that all at once. You have to do it one...by one...by one...very boring, very slow. No flash. So not him."

"So...we can't do shit about them..."

"You regret being the god's main cannon that much? If you could hit a reset button..." Percy trailed off.

"That's not the point. It's not about making a wrong decision or making a right decision, it's about there being no fucking right decision. It's about how doing fucking anything is pointless. It about...wanting...only things you can never have...it's about..."

"Being pissed you can't fuck the stars even if you are fully erect and you can see them?"

"Not like that...not like...it's...I don't want to live, but I definitely don't want to die. I want to disappear. More than that, I want to have never fucking have been."

"Well...we can't fucking kill them. You can...get more and more fucking pissed about what you can't do...or you can focus on the fun stuff you can do. And what I want to do..is fucking piss them off just by being. They want me to give up and die ...wanna find out with me how long we can deny them that?"

"You're going to die eventually...and then..."

"The realms of the dead...no longer belong to the gods. That was the other fucking point. The only real point that they don't see yet. When we die...we're free from them. Prometehues has plans. Big ones. And they don't include or even bother to acknowledge the gods' desire for revenge and torture and entertainment. He is going to play with his toys..."

"What do you mean?"

"He is shutting himself and all the dead away. Athena won't risk another war, not for a while. Sides, I am their main focus...the distraction. And Prometheus will get more and more and more ready...and safe. The gods will convince themselves they have lost nothing, that they are the lords of the living or some shit like that..and then..."

Percy grinned, trying desperately to infect Luke with it.

"Do you miss having two hands?" asked Luke.

"Not as much as you'd think. Somehow it actually gives me satisfaction...in a twisted way. I actually feel calm and nice knowing that I would give everything for what I believed in and my body is exhibit A that I started to. Sides...only need one hand to masturbate anyway."

They sat in more silence, Luke twisting painfully in it, till Percy broke it.

"Yell. You think you want reasons and some big answer and some catharsis, but right now...you really want to yell and scream and punch shit. I can take it. Come at me. Yell out everything which is bothering you..."

"We just spent two hours "getting it out of our systems". Didn't work."

"Not like that..we need to find you some healing. Some deep fucking healing. Like this!" Percy's fist shot out, launching Luke from the bench.

"Not gonna work." said Luke, not even bothering to stand. "I'm not going to get alive in self defence."

"Yeah...if you could...get mad due to pain." Kick. "You would be fine." Punch. " But you stay deeper and deeper inside." Elbow. "Trying to attain serenity when-

Luke started fighting back but it was half-hearted and almost pointless.

"You are like me. We are calm in our rage. We don't accept things, we don't compromise, we just fucking wait and work and bleed till we can fuck everything and everyone that should be fucked. We are brothers by rage..."

"Rage is not enough! We need more! We can get...we can't go on like this!"

"Can't we? Or do you just not want to? Bleeding...hurting...screaming...We're used to that. Going on with life is a bitch for us, I know. That's our hand. Living with a whole bunch of supposedly divine being who keep trying to fuck us."

"Then why don't we just kill ourselves and go live in Prometheus world? We have an out! Let's-

Suddenly Luke was rammed against a tree with a force that almost snapped him in two.

"Because fuck just denying and annoying them...GODS WERE MEANT TO BE DEFIED!"

"Fuck calm! Fuck reason! Fuck answers! You want a summary of our world? We got a shit hand and you are pissed that we can't get a new one and I'm not letting you fold! I'm telling you...we are going to kill that fucking dealer, shit on his table and then fuck his mother!"

Percy was suddenly flying backwards, as Luke painfully limped away from the tree.

"At least you realise you're..."

The words were said but didn't reach him.

xxx

You know, I should not be a therapist. Really, I have a limited skill range, and getting Naruto level personality conversions going is probably just beyond me. But hey...I tried.

Smiling slightly, I started practising my new one handed sword skills. Well, it's not like I could keep Backbiter anyway...twirling elegantly I noticed something which was trying to hide in the blind spot of my absent eye.

Fuck.

"Lady Athena sends her regards." said the Minotaur, by way of greeting. He was clad in full celestial armour, worryingly decorated with the symbol of Olympus and a wonderful blue owl was proudly displayed on the front.

"Well, I have a retort, involving her body as a nifty hiding place for that axe of yours, but I'm guessing the odds of you remembering a multi word sentence are just too damn low."

I held Riptide out in one hand like I couldn't really wield it.

"Pity. You were a challenge before. Now you are joke." he spat out, breathing insolently. Okay, maybe I am reading too much into it, but any monster which breathes in front of me is insolent as fuck.

His eyes widened slightly as time seemingly froze and I darted past him, my speed coming close to Lukes. Riptide effortlessly cleaved his neck as I landed on the other side of him.

"Well, I was wondering if I should interfere or not. Way to make me feel unneeded." observed Luke, looking down at the rapidly disappearing body.

"What's in the bag?" I asked, noting something was wrong. Ah yeah...he wasn't randomly shaking. His clothes were clean. And his eyes...

"Spray paint. Beer. Explosives. We need to go handle some remnants of Oranos' army who are running lose...we will also be desecrating every fucking holy place, symbol, person, animal and literally every other noun you can think off. While being drunk."

I started laughing. Fuck...really?

"Really...that's the sky." said Luke pointing up into the air and tossing me a beer and opening one for himself.

"It is..." I agreed softly, opening my can of beer one handedly, grinning like a mad fucker.

He is back. It is time.

"Let's go fuck it."

xxx

The afterlife had been a stagnant hole for as many millennia as humanity had existed. Originally, it was simply the place that essence went when it was broken into pieces. It then reformed and returned and stagnated, never being anything more.

Now...it was something else. It was being rapidly filled with sprawling cities which had massive towers and castles and...

"You know, I really love my style." muttered Prometheus, who had started turning the fields into everything the people wanted. Tartarus was expanding and flowing and burning and being rebuilt and destroyed in a beautiful, exciting, never ending cycle.

It was like every single RTS game ever was happening all at once. The reincarnation system was flawless, the afterlife was literally whatever life you wanted it to be. Unless Prometheus decided you didn't know what you really wanted, in which case he threw you in a random time area and hoped for the best. He also intervened sometimes, really, he was still playing, trying to figure out the exact differences between what people needed and wanted and what he should give them. He was learning, sculpting, enjoying, watching the show...but sometimes the show needed editing...

He picked up the dictator op one handedly. Funnily, he managed to create a religion in his quite corner of the afterlife, and started controlling and manipulating until he controlled the whole city. In the before death this would have just continued happening...but this was the after life.

"Time to feed the fish..." whispered Prometheus happily, happily forging a suicide note which denounced the religion and made several other...suggestions. There was also a second note, meant only for the people who made decide they would be the next leader.

In the darkest part of Tarturus there is a single hole.

There are waves of blood forming massive bubbles and swirling around, covering the entrance. The blood was golden, copper, red, blue...the blood of gods, titans, monsters, men...all held by the darkest of magic, blocking all attempts to scry or detect the hole.

Hades, Poseidon and Zeus were all chained to three rocks which were spaced at 60 degree angles. It looked almost artistic. They were screaming obscenities and threats, switching rapidly between demands and pleading. All staring with pure rage at the being which was standing in front of them with a thin smile.

Prometheues looked up at what should be called a sky. He was reading from the bible.

"So wrong...so wrong. See, it's a metaphor right..." he was addressing the three silently screaming gods. "No holy book should start with...and he created light...what gods really should give...is the ability to create light. And also darkness...only in darkness can you really see and appreciate that you've created..."

The cloaked figure sitting next to him and glaring down at the gods nodded in agreement.

Prometheues laughed and stared up at the sky again. It should have been blood...

"Light."

But it was blotted out by a swarm of very hungry eagles.

**The End**

**Author's Notes:**

**So we come to the open ending which really solves nothing. Sort of like life, except it could have been anything, and you know, it was. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in a review or in a pm. This chapter was weird since I removed more than I added, feeling that I was ruining the story by showing some things too clearly...**

**And about the story**

**You shouldn't try to take anything from this story, nor learn from it. There is nothing in it to take, nothing to learn.**

**Except that when you are trapped in despair by laughing, thirsting gods, rage is the only good thing you can feel. Also, fuck twilight and my little pony.**

**#yoloswag**


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